Poetry Bulletin: May 2024

A personal update + important FYI on fee support + new resource with deadlines

Hey poets — this bulletin is late, because I’ve been spending time with family, walking in the woods with my dad, stopping for trilliums whenever we find them. We recently found out he has cancer, and the most honest thing I can say is that when he’s not well, I’m not well… We’re sorting out what this means in the near-term, and I’m listening for where my attention is needed right now… my dad and I very close, very much the same kind of restless/intense/heart-out-there person. Much of what I do here comes from that space, and now I’m struggling a lot to find words… even writing this feels clumsy, but I want to be honest with you all about where I’m at.

I’m taking longer to respond to things right now, so if you’re reaching out for anything related to a deadline—especially submission fee support—please leave extra time for my reply. If you can, try to reach out at least a week before your deadline.

Another update is that I’ve ended my affiliation with Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA), also known as the Amherst writing method. I’ve been part of AWA since 2015, and many of you joined the bulletin through that work, so I wanted to let you know. I’ve been engaged with AWA for months about supporting Palestinian writers, releasing a statement, etc. I didn’t volunteer a session for the May fundraiser, “Write Around the World,” because I was waiting for more clarity. My understanding is a message might be forthcoming, but when the promotions for “Write Around the World” came out and offered no message or support to writers facing genocide, I decided to withdraw from the organization.

Like I’ve said before, I feel it’s important for organizations that claim to offer safe or “freeing” spaces for writers to be clear now, and to speak to and support writers who are directly affected. With AWA, I had also hoped for/offered to support a teach-in or other gathering for leaders of the Amherst method, so we could support each other and get more equipped to meet this moment in our workshops. I realize this is just one idea of what might be helpful now, and I’m just one voice relating to the method this way… but this kind of work is a big part of why I was pulled to AWA in the first place, and to me, it’s at the heart of AWA’s origins—for instance, in Writing Alone & With Others, Pat Schneider (the founder of AWA) devotes a chapter and many workshop examples to writing as a political act and the harms of silence.

Even with those roots, one curious thing I found throughout nine years with AWA: people sometimes confuse the gentleness of this writing method with neutrality or apoliticalness.

When I raised money for Standing Rock or talked about the shooting in Christchurch or said Black Lives Matter, there were always writers who responded with some version of, “I thought you were my writing coach. I thought this was a safe space. Why are you making this political?”

Every time, I figured out a little more about what clarity means (to me) in practice, and every time I went back to Pat’s writing about silence. But what really started to bother me in all this is the assumption that a gentle method couldn’t (or shouldn’t) possibly have anything to do with politics, with justice, with change. What bothers me is when people act like I’ve tricked them: I thought you were gentle, so I wouldn’t have to think about those other things here!

Gentleness! If gentleness and tenderness are not the someday-fruits of these so-called politics, then what is? It’s work like Pat’s that reminds me that true gentleness is not a distraction from—it can be a way into better possibilities. As long as we call each other in to create those possibilities. As long as our gentle methods also refuse silence.

The future in my imagination is so gentle, so tender—and safer, and freer, because of it. It is like all the fathers I’ve watched holding their children in Gaza, so tender. It is like my own father playing the song that makes us both cry, because he knows when we both need to cry now. I want a future just like that—so tender and so gentle, it makes anything else feel like a half-world.

emily

New Resource

Chiara Di Lello and I are working on a document of upcoming deadlines with publishers in solidarity with Palestinians. I’m updating it more this week. This pulls from a variety of sources (noted in the doc) and focuses on active/upcoming deadlines. It’s time-consuming to navigate PACBI lists or Twitter threads and figure out who’s actually open for submissions, so the intent was just to remove a little administrative burden.

This is not meant to speak over or duplicate anyone’s work, and it may change as needs change. It was created after a few Palestinian writers reached out to me about gathering deadlines following last month’s bulletin. I’m just trying to listen to needs when they pop up now, especially if I’m asked directly about something. If you have feedback or additions for this doc, please let me know!

I’m also still hoping

Chill Subs

and/or Duotrope will create an option to sort listings on their sites for publishers that have committed to PACBI. I know PACBI is just one piece, but it would be a start. Do you know someone on these teams to ask about this? Could you drop them a note?

Upcoming Deadlines

These are upcoming poetry book and chapbook deadlines with publishers that are in solidarity with Palestine:

• May 31 - Sundress Publications (chapbook) (waivers for all BIPOC writers)

• May 31 - Broken Sleep Books (full-length)

• June 30 - Poetry Northwest - Possession Sound Poetry Series (with a free submission period for BIPOC writers)

• June 30 - River River Books (full-length) (sliding scale/pay what you can submission fees)

• July 15 - Diode Editions (chapbook and full-length)

There are about a dozen deadlines for full-length poetry books between now and mid-June. The full spreadsheet of upcoming manuscript deadlines is available here.

Blue sky grief is a different breed: natural causes
& old age; diseases acquired from a life lived,
if not lived well. Our sky grief is a night ablaze
with rockets, eardrums throbbing, windows
rattling, & tent flaps clapping from the blast.

—from “ekphrastic under a bombed-out sky” by Mandy Shunnarah

On the way

• An update on submission fee support, which has been very active this year. I’m doing my best to keep up and chip in extra as I’m able, but the requests continue to outpace the available funds. Thanks to paid subscribers for your support here!

• I’m starting to commission (although I don’t love the word commission?? invite?? make space for??) some special posts by fellow poets for the Poetry Bulletin, which has been a goal for awhile, to bring more voices into the mix here. This will be a paid opportunity, and I’ll share more soon.

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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.