Poetry Bulletin: March 2023

With 20+ deadlines, experiments to decide on chapbook vs. full-length, and more

Photo by Csaba Talaber on Unsplash

Hello, poets! I’m here with deadlines for late March through early April, plus some possibilities for your poetry experiments this month. I also have an update on submission fee support:

Last month, I started accepting paid subscriptions via Substack. This is an optional way to support the project. Half of the funds go to sustaining the submission fee support, and half go to care of the Poetry Bulletin resources.

• So far, about 20 of you have opted to share support via paid subscriptions—thank you! In February, $264.65 was given to poets for submission fees.

• Since the submission fee circle started in March 2021, over $5,300 has been given to 85+ poets. These days I’m getting more requests than we can actually fulfill.

• If you’d like to chip in outside of Substack, let me know. I’m still open to matching people for direct, poet-to-poet support. (That’s how we’ve done it since 2021. Substack is just a new, additional option.)

And a gentle reminder from a writer who struggles with email: please keep your fee requests focused on submissions for poetry chapbooks and full-length poetry books. I’m getting more notes asking for financial support well beyond that, which makes it tough to keep up and get back to folks in a timely way.

Thanks to everyone who has given this project a boost and helped fellow poets get their work out. Sending this note with lots of appreciation and good thoughts for your poetry—

Emily Stoddard

p.s. Thanks for the kind messages as I celebrated the release of Divination with a Human Heart Attached last month! The recording of the launch reading is available now.

---

Making the Manuscript

Struggling with whether to hone your poems into a chapbook or go for a full-length manuscript? Some inspiration for you:

• This episode of The Chapbook podcast, with Ross White, Noah Stetzer, and Kerrin McCadden

• This exchange kicked off by Jared Beloff and this one started by Daniela Paraguya Sow, where writers shared how they approached the choice to expand a collection or not, what felt natural or not and why

• Karissa Knox Sorrell on the form of the book and making it cohesive — this post reminded me of the accordion experiment/revision exercise I tried when trying to figure out the scale and shape of my own book.

  ---

• “Most often it has an informal, playful air, like the rapid, unfinished caricatures left behind on café napkins. Prose poetry depends on a collision of two impulses, those for poetry and those for prose, and it can either have a quiet meditative air or feel like a performance in a three-ring circus.” — Charles Simic on prose poetry

• “Yes, it’s true that you don’t need to read everyone’s book. I will never be upset that someone hasn’t read my book, unless they’re supposed to be interviewing me on air or something. But ‘what a feat’ is the most condescending pat on the head.” —

  Rebecca Makkai
  on actual literary etiquette

The Flood of ChatGPT Crap About to Clog Up Publishing

Creative Support: Fellowships, Residencies & More

• Twila Newey
  has compiled a great list of journals that accept visual poetry.

• The Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships are now open at the Poetry Foundation. This is for poets between 21 and 31 years old. Deadline is April 14.

• The FSG Writer’s Fellowship is back, with applications due April 3.

• An interesting opportunity: The Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize, “open to women book collectors in the United States, aged 30 or younger. Contestants do not need to be enrolled in a degree program, nor do they require a sponsor. Honey & Wax uses ‘women’ in its most expansive definition, one fully inclusive of non-binary, trans and gender-non-conforming collectors.”

• Literary Cleveland is accepting applications for its Inkubator Fellowship and proposals for the 2023 Inkubator Conference. Both are due April 3.

• Interlochen is taking applications for an instructor of creative writing for their summer programs.

• Want more residency and fellowship opportunities? BOMB Magazine gathers a list every quarter—here’s their latest.

Laura Villareal @earthandstars

What poetry books did you read early in your writing life that felt revelatory / changed the direction of your poetry?

Upcoming Manuscript Deadlines

• Take note: C&R Press has a deadline this month, however

  Lit Mag News
  recently did a deep dive into that publisher (and a concerning web of connected press/publishing projects) that's worth checking out before submitting.

• Heads up: Nicole Tallman is editing a new book series for ELJ Editions. Submissions will open in May, and you can find some details here.

• Heads up: Rose Metal Press has announced an upcoming reading period for hybrid and cross-genre manuscripts, including prose poetry and novels-in-verse.

• Mar 24 — Black Ocean Open Reading Period

• Mar 31 — Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prize

• Mar 31 — Switchback Books Gatewood Prize — offers fee waivers

• Mar 31 — Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award

• Mar 31 — Able Muse Book Award

• Mar 31 — Four Way Books Levis Prize

• Mar 31 — Trail to Table Press Open Reading Period

• Mar 31 — Lily Poetry Review - Paul Nemser Prize

• Mar 31 — Milk and Cake Press— offers fee waivers

• Mar 31 — Stillhouse Press Ecopoetry Collection— offers fee waivers

• Mar 31 — Driftwood Press

• Mar 31 — Nervous Ghost Press (found via

  The Practicing Writer 2.0: A Newsletter from Erika Dreifus
  )

• Apr 1 — Orison Books Poetry Prize

• Apr 1 — Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize & Alma Book Award

• Apr 15 — Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry

• Apr 17 — Hub City Press New Southern Voices Poetry Book Prize

• There are about 12 ongoing opportunities on the big list of publishers (as in, presses reading throughout the year).

---

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.