Call for papers: poetry, essays, stories, reviews
Suggested Theme: Bridges
Deadline March 31, 2012.
January 2012
Dear Friends,
The Poetry Porch is accepting submissions now for the next issue, which is on the theme of bridges. What is so persuasive about the image of a bridge? Is it that a bridge is a part of daily life or that is is a testament to man's engineering and artistic striving? How was it built? Who crosses it? A bridge lies over the water or roadway with a stillness and a permanence about it. Hart Crane describes the Brooklyn Bridge as a silver vision of liberty while observing it at dawn, at noon, and at night, while Richard Wilbur describes the rising panels of a drawbridge as a welcome interruption during the traffic of the day, like the anticipation of a smile. Perhaps the bridge you have in mind is not one that joins land masses, but connects people and cultures. Submitted works might focus on a bridge as a central image or the connective element of a promise or idea.
Poems: send 3 to 8 poems. We are looking for poetry that is formal or informal, that adheres to strict meter and rhyme or experiments with them, that is personal or objective, classical or modern, urban or pastoral. These should be original and not previously published. (Note: occasionally we post ten or more published poems for a profile of a featured poet.)
Essays and stories: These can be 300 to 4000 words in length and on any topic that we agree is literary and that shows an engagement with language.
Reviews: Critical reviews of poetry books, and others of literary interest, are welcome (most are 700 to 1500 words). These can be first books, collections, groups of books, and chapbooks. Book reviews do not have to discuss a current publication but can introduce books published in the past decade that might have been overlooked or that will justify a reconsideration. We suggest that reviewers discuss what the author has set out to do and then how well he or she has done it, quoting specific examples from the poems.
Sonnets: We are interested in original unpublished sonnets to add to The Sonnet Scroll.
Email or US mail: Send MS Word attachments (doc or docx) or paste text into the message box to Poetry Porch Mail. Or you may send hard copies through US mail to Joyce Wilson, Editor, The Poetry Porch, 158 Hollett Street, Scituate, MA 02066 (781/ 545-0731).
Contact information: Please include contact information on your submitted materials at or near the top of every page (name, email, telephone, and US mail address) and a brief biographical statement to let us know who you are, how you heard about The Poetry Porch, where you have published, and other relevant information.
Thank you for your interest in The Poetry Porch.
Joyce Wilson