Poetry Bulletin: December 2024
15+ deadlines, writing experiments, and the 2025 update is on the way
“Our service is needed as writers. Our service is needed as human beings, in every room, in every space. Especially where there is something to risk, or there is an opportunity to be lost, or that courage will really cost you. That’s what’s most needed. I don’t want to write anything that is a consolation. I don’t want to console.”
— Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, winner of the 2024 National Book Award in poetry
Hi poets — keeping my hello brief for an important update:
Started research for the annual update on poetry book publishers. The publisher update for 2025 will be the biggest yet, as I keep adding compensation info, PACBI solidarity, and more.
Now tracking 190+ reading periods. I go one by one for the update, so my attention will be there for the time being.
That means my inbox is in “out of office” mode—this includes requests for submission fee support. Those will re-open in January. Please don’t send a request until I share that it’s open again.
Thank you…
Especially to everyone who shared these tools with fellow poets—like I said at the start of 2024, let’s not hoard the goods! Information is its own kind of wealth! Redistribution of wealth includes redistribution of information!
& thanks to everyone who supports the project with paid subscriptions. Big thanks to the anonymous backers of the fee support fund, who chipped in extra when it was needed this year.
I heard from more poets this year who got the “yes” on their book because of this project. So many dances of joy at my keyboard. Much-needed good news in a tough year!
This project belongs to all of us. I’m one writer who shared a spreadsheet in 2018, and it’s grown so much since then. It’s all of us trading information, calling for transparency, refusing gatekeepers, and exchanging mutual aid who are doing the real work.
In Practice
“I thought about calling it a hybrid memoir but then thought, What if I just called it a memoir and then people were confronted with poetry unexpectedly?” —
on their new book Pretty, in a conversation with Shlagha Borah at The OffingA writing experiment from Bernadette Mayer’s list: “Take a traditional text like the pledge of allegiance to the flag. For every noun, replace it with one that is seventh or ninth down from the original one in the dictionary. For instance, the word ‘honesty’ would be replaced by ‘honey dew melon.’ Investigate what happens; different dictionaries will produce different results.”
“For me, bipolar poetics means treasuring extremes. Maybe that’s in form, right? A poem that gradually cuts itself down, until all that’s left is a single-word stanza. Or, in looking at a collection, there could be a massive, cluttered poem following a sparser one.” — Bri Gonzalez in conversation with SG Huerta about their new collection, A Wellness Check
A practice book of mine came out recently: Surfacing, a book of closing practices for creative writers. You can get it at Bookshop.org or your local bookstore. (Outside the U.S., the book is also at Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.)
Creative Support: Reading Series, Awards & More
If you’re writing and submitting in solidarity with writers facing genocide now, you’ll find tips for researching and vetting organizations in this document. Even a couple minutes of searching Twitter, Substack, or an organization’s website can be clarifying.
Dec 27 — Call for Applications: Emerge Summer 2025 Hybrid Disability Studies Workshop for Disabled Activists, Artists, Cultural Producers, Filmmakers, and Academics (h/t
)December 31 – Emergency Residency Programme for Artists and Cultural Practitioners Living in Palestine – a three-month residency with accommodations, stipend, round-trip travel, and more support
Dec 31 — Sundress Publications Microgrant for Palestinian Writers
Dec 31 — The Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize, a post-publication prize for first books published in 2024
Dec 31 — Sundress Publications is seeking readers for its 2025 edition of the Poets in Pajamas Reading Series. This is a monthly, virtual reading series.
Jan 4 —
is seeking 2025 workshop proposals.Jan 6 — Mizna is reading submissions for an unthemed summer issue. No submission fees and honorarium of $200, one-year subscription, and five contributor copies.
Jan 17 — The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment is open for their 2025 book awards. This is a post-publication award for books released in 2023 or 2024.
Jan 31 — Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, grants of $500 to $2000 for “individual feminist women in the arts with primary residence in the US and Canada”
Here are more deadlines and resources for Palestinian writers and those who want to publish in solidarity with them.
Upcoming Deadlines for Poetry Manuscripts
Between now and early January, there are no reading periods with presses that are working in solidarity with writers facing genocide.
There are 7+ deadlines for full-length poetry books between now and early 2025. The full spreadsheet of upcoming deadlines is available here.
Has your favorite publisher committed to PACBI yet?
When in doubt, ask. Publishers for Palestine and Writers Against the War on Gaza have lists of presses committed to PACBI. It can be helpful to mention a few peer publishers when encouraging a magazine or press to sign on.
The bulletin is made by Emily Stoddard, and the big list of poetry publishers came together as she found a publisher (Game Over Books) for her poetry debut, Divination with a Human Heart Attached. If you have updates to a publisher’s listing or want to share a resource, please leave a comment.