Perfect Day Books Launches Poetry Month Challenge

By Dakota Parks for Inweekly

The revolution won’t be televised—but it might be scribbled in the margins of a spiral notebook or stapled into a zine on the back of a book truck.

This April, in honor of National Poetry Month, Perfect Day Books is inviting the community to show up, write every day and see what rises to the surface.

Specializing in stories often left off the shelves, like banned books and works from queer and BIPOC authors, the independent mobile bookstore is launching a 30-day writing challenge that asks the community to arrive at their notebooks with intention every single day.

The challenge is simple: write one poem every day of April based on a series of prompts provided by the shop. Submissions will be read and judged by Burns alongside two guest judges.* The challenge winner will receive support publishing poetry in a zine, including formatting assistance, $200 toward printing costs and a spot on Perfect Day Books’ truck to sell their work.

“This is the first April the book truck is up and running, no longer a pipe dream,” owner Hannah Burns said. “I didn’t open the book truck just to make money. I opened it as a way to inspire the community to read and write. Creating this challenge has been in my mind since the conception of the truck. Poetry is also my favorite genre to read and write.”

That emphasis on writing, not just consuming, sits at the heart of the challenge. Burns isn’t interested in poetry as something distant or academic. If anything, she’s pushing against that perception entirely, questioning how and why people disengage from the form in the first place.

“In undergrad, my poetry professor opened the semester with an assignment to answer the question, ‘Why have people stopped reading and engaging with poetry?’” Burns said. “It was really hard to answer because first you have to answer the question, ‘What is poetry?’ And I feel like people get the concept of what poetry actually is so confused partly because of our terrible school system we have in America.”

For Burns, poetry isn’t confined to stanzas or strict forms; it’s something far more expansive, something embedded in everyday life.

“Poetry is anything you want it to be. Poetry can be a meme. Poetry can be nonsense. Poetry can be a text left on read,” she said. “Many things we interact with daily in our digital world could be classified as poetry if you practice a radical acceptance philosophy. Poetry is the closest thing the human language has to being physical art.”

Participants are writing for themselves, but they’re also building toward something tangible. The winning poet will receive support to transform their work into a zine, a format Burns sees as both accessible and deeply rooted in community exchange.

“Zines are approachable. I want to inspire people to write down their thoughts on some of these national issues and distribute them in the community,” Burns said. “I believe people are scared or at least hesitant to get their opinions out there because so much of the messaging online has been, ‘Shut up, no one needs to hear your opinion.’ I want to break people out of that spell.”

As a poet and bookstore owner Burns also sees a clear appetite in Pensacola for work that feels immediate, local and real.

“Zines sell well with us. Besides the capitalism of it all, people in Pensacola want to read zines,” she said. “Our readership is starving for authentic media created by their fellow community members.”

Still, access remains a barrier. Not everyone knows how to format a zine, fund printing or feel confident enough to put their work out into the world. The challenge, and its prize structure, are designed to address that directly.

“I don’t want limited access to funds, formatting knowledge or editing skills to get in the way of great work getting distributed,” Burns said. “I may not have the skills to lobby congress or solve world hunger, but I do have these bookish skills to offer others.”

The challenge also offers writers a way to understand their own inner landscape. As Burns explained, writing every day, even imperfectly, becomes a method of excavation.

“In the winning submission, I am looking for someone with a strong voice, clear about what they want to say to the world,” Burns said. “I think challenges such as this one are good tools to see what’s readily available in your subconscious. What are you thinking about daily? What media is influencing you? Slow-paced poetry is often about skimming the pond of the mind to find the hidden treasure. I think this challenge is about what kind of muck floats to the top.”

Most importantly, the project allows Perfect Day Books to use its platform to amplify local voices and foster connection at a time when both feel fragile.

“We are not making any money off this project,” Burns said. “It is simply a form of activism and exercising our platform as leverage. I want to create a greater sense of community. We are in one of the darkest moments of human history: war, genocide, tyrannical governments, mass surveillance, transhumanism. As a community we need to translate this fear about the unknown future into creation.”

She points to a line from the late poet Andrea Gibson as something of a guiding principle: “We have to create; it is the only thing louder than destruction.”

For Burns, that belief is deeply personal. Since opening Perfect Day Books, her own relationship with poetry has shifted alongside her role in the community.

“The biggest thing opening the bookstore has given me is a sense of purpose and belonging in the community,” she said. “Being bookish often means you spend time alone, reading and writing. But I think I’ve found a way to break the cycle of solitary habits by uplifting others’ finished work.”

Burns hopes to remind people that their voice matters, even if it’s uncertain, even if it’s still forming.

“Now more than ever it is imperative to practice using our voices,” Burns said. “Use your voice. Chime in. Say something. Don’t let fear wipe the words from your mouth.”

Perfect Day Books’ 30-Day Writing Challenge

WHAT: A month-long poetry writing challenge with a publishing opportunity

WHEN: Now-April 30

DETAILS: @perfectdaybookstore

—Poetic Events—

Undergrowth Craft Night & Poetry workshop

5-8 p.m. Monday, April 13 at Pensacola Liberation Center, 2737 N. E St.

Halfway Showcase & Open Mic

5-8 p.m. Saturday, April 18 from at Golden Hour Tea House, 2950 N. 12th Ave.

Tarot Channeled Poetry Workshop & Club

4-6 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at Golden Hour Tea House, 2950 N. 12th Ave.

End of Challenge Showcase & Open Mic

5-8 p.m. Saturday, May 2 at Golden Hour Tea House, 2950 N. 12th Ave.

—Poetic Extras— 

Poetry Trivia

7-9 p.m. Tuesdays at Dorothy’s, 309 S. Reus St.

Pensacola Poetry Open Mic

6-8 p.m. every Tuesday at Craft Gourmet Bakery & Cafe, 615 Scenic Highway

Poem Exchange Wall

Jitterbug Beverage Co., 2050 N. 12th Ave.

Poetry-themed flash tattoos

Permanent Ink Tattoo Shop, 402 W. Cervantes St.

Drink specials for poets

CB Coffee & Tea Truck, find hours and locations

@cbcoldbrew

*Editor’s note: The author of this story, Dakota Parks, is participating in this year’s challenge as one of the three judges.