Poetry Bulletin: June 2023

15+ deadlines, false starts on the way to a first book, and more

Photo by Viridi Green on Unsplash

Hello poets! Happy June. Happy summer (in the northern hemisphere, that is). Happy Pride. Happy sunny days and dandelion lawns.

I’m here with new possibilities for your poetry, and with gratitude for those of you chipping in support via paid submissions. The poetry bulletin now reaches almost 2,800 readers, and 54 of you support the project with paid subscriptions.

We’ve now helped over 100 poets send out their chapbooks or full-length manuscripts, with $6,000+ given since March 2021.

The availability of funds is always ebbing and flowing based on the number of requests, how much support has come in recently, whether I can chip in extra to help cover gaps, etc. You can learn more about the process here.

I also want to send a very special thanks to folks who have checked in and shared book or poem recommendations after I posted about saying goodbye to my dog and writing sidekick, Finney. I’ve been so very moved by your thoughtfulness… it’s been a sweet reminder of community, a reminder that we’re not all strangers on the other side of these screens.

With good thoughts for your writing,

Emily Stoddard

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Making the Manuscript

“But I need to make the Poetry Business truly secondary to poetry. This is an ugly process, I admit. It means I have to back up from a lot of online drama about poetry, the kind of stuff that sucks me into identifying with my position. I have to slow down and recognize when I’m looking outward. I will absolutely fuck this up. I’m in the process of divorcing my sense of self from my list of achievements. The divorce is not amicable. Necessary, though.” — from “Shrink,” by Jessica L. Walsh

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• Ocean Vuong in The Guardian: “I have a deep suspicion or, more accurately, an ambivalence to the myth of ‘style.’ I believe the common anxiety for a writer to ‘find’ or ‘establish’ a style is actually incredibly limiting – and the longer I teach the more I find this to be true.”

• “Let’s be clear about a few things: first, artificial intelligence is not what it says on the label. It is not intelligent. It is a content scraper, an aggregator, a copy-pasta information thief, and all it does is stick a bunch of pre-existing shit in a can, shake it up, and pour it out.” —

  Chuck Wendig
  on the state of publishing right now.

• A good companion to that post is

  Joseph Fasano
  ’s poem in response to a teacher who asked him to write poems to “compete” with AI.

• For Writer’s Digest, I shared about a false start in the journey to my first book, along with seven resources for others who are revising their debut poetry collection.
  

Creative Support: Fellowships, Residencies & More

• July 15 — The 2024 poetry.onl Chapbook Fellowship is open for submissions. This is a unique opportunity with a project that’s doing a lot to make poetry more accessible. I love that it includes print, audio, and eBook publication.

• August 15 — A unique opportunity from Annulet: a new virtual lecture series on poetics. They’re accepting nominations and proposals now.

• Alysandra Dutton
  wrote an incredibly helpful thread on applying for a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation.
  

Upcoming Manuscript Deadlines

• Searching for chapbook reading periods rather than full-length possibilities? Check out this spreadsheet created by Anna Lena Phillips Bell and Ryan Bloom.

• June 30 — Codhill Press Guest Editor Series, with a theme of “Dreams and the Subconscious” this year. No reading fee!

• June 30 — The Song Cave Open Reading Period

• June 30 — Rose Metal Press Open Reading Period for hybrid and cross-genre manuscripts, including prose poetry and novels-in-verse.

• June 30 — Green Bottle Press (FYI: June 30 is based on last year, but it looks like Green Bottle may have a rolling deadline for now. According to their website: “The submission deadline for publication in 2025 is April 2024.”)

• June 30 — Barrow Street Book Contest

• June 30 — Four Way Books Open Reading Period

• June 30 — May Sarton Poetry Prize

• June 30 — Unicorn Press Open Reading Period

• June 30 — Cider Press Review Editors' Prize

• June 30 — Green Writers Press Open Reading Period

• July 1 — Black Lawrence Press Open Reading Period

• July 1 — Black Lawrence Press St. Lawrence Book Award Early Bird

• July 1 — YesYes Books is holding an open reading period and accepting submissions for the Pamet River Prize. (Capped at 400 submissions.)

• July 7 — Conduit’s Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize

• Jack Leg Press is open to queries through the rest of the year.

• Heads up: The Sowell Emerging Writers Prize will be awarded in poetry this year. They’re interested in books “on themes about and related to the natural world by writers who have published no more than one book in any genre.”

• There are more ongoing opportunities on the big list of publishers (as in, presses reading throughout the year).

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The bulletin is made by Emily Stoddard. If you have ideas, updates to a publisher’s listing, or want to share a resource, say hello by replying to this note.