Poetry Bulletin: October 2024

Mutual aid, 10+ deadlines, special ask for editors, and one caution this month

A moment with the salmon here in Michigan… artists of resistance and persistence.

Thank you to the poets who are paying attention, and not just to campaign slogans. Thank you to the poets who are being changed and writing about it, leaving a map. Thank you to the presses that are listening, and acting.

Love to those mourning lost family members and friends, lost homes, lost trees, lost pets, lost universities, lost libraries—in the midst of genocide in Palestine, and now we turn to Lebanon, and now we grieve Marcellus Williams, and now also Hurricane Helene, and—love to those who recognize how these events are connected and refuse to turn away. The bombs dropped on one community intensify the conditions that make the hurricanes more deadly in another. The police officer blocking the entrance to the grocery store in North Carolina shares a posture with the soldier at the checkpoint in Gaza.

Love to the poets holding multiple tragedies, feeling how it’s all connected but maybe also sometimes feeling the limits of what you can do or who you can trust. This month, with contributions from writers like SG Huerta, Chiara Di Lello, and Rasha Abdulhadi, I’ve gathered some resources to try and keep meeting this moment:

If you need support…

• Palestinian and Lebanese writers, and writers affected by Hurricane Helene: I’m setting aside $150 in extra submission fee funds this month for you, for submissions of any kind (book, residency, poetry, essays, fiction, etc.). Just drop me an email with: one or two places where you’re submitting + how much the fee is. I’ll get you the funds via Paypal.

• A collection of Hurricane Helene relief resources for Appalachia (thanks to

  SG Huerta
  for sharing, in an update with many other helpful resources… lots of good thoughts to the RWW writers who were on a mountain when this hit, glad you’re home safely)

• For disabled folks impacted by Hurricane Helene, the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies has a disability and disaster hotline: 800-626-4959 or hotline@disasterstrategies.org

• Palestine Legal is here for those losing jobs, housing, etc. as a result of advocating for Palestine.

If you can share…

• The Municipality of Gaza is repairing water wells—this campaign ends October 10 and is less than 70% of the way to its goal, so please give soon.

• A list of Lebanon relief funds seeking donations (via Mizna)

• Support relief efforts for disabled survivors of Hurricane Helene.

• eKy Mutual Aid is an established community fund, you can donate through them to get cash directly to people who need it after Hurricane Helene. Their Facebook group also has specific requests for aid.

• Workshops4Gaza is bringing writers, artists, and educators together to offer online workshops, with all proceeds going to Palestinians. They’ve got a handful of upcoming workshops and also donate all book sales.

Is your favorite organization or publisher in solidarity?
If not, have you asked them about it?

You have power here. When in doubt about where an organization stands, ask. In just one example:

Taco Bell Quarterly

recently signed on to PACBI thanks to encouragement from one of their contributors.

• This statement from the Gay Little Yiddish Theatre shows how PACBI can make solidarity more specific, urgent, and tangible. It’s “a first step to set a clear line,” as Ruth Geye wrote. “Calls for pluralism are useless, ‘holding space for diverse perspectives’ is useless. While you’re complaining about holes in your big tent, people are dying.”

• 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.

• There are more tips for researching and vetting organizations in the resource Chiara and I have been working on.

Upcoming Deadlines

Between now and the end of November, there are two reading periods with presses that are working in solidarity with writers facing genocide:

• Nov 15 — Nightboat Books Poetry Prize

• Nov 30 — Abode Press is open for poetry and hybrid chapbook submissions. Fee waivers are available for queer and/or trans writers of color.

And one caution: Milkweed Editions, in collaboration with Copper Nickel, has a deadline this month for the Jake Adam York Prize. Please read Su Hwang’s open letter about terminating a publishing contract with Milkweed. Su is also supporting a BIPOC editor who is fighting an NDA to be able to share the discrimination she experienced while working at Milkweed.

There are 10+ deadlines for full-length poetry books between now and early November. The full spreadsheet of upcoming deadlines is available here.

How is this time changing you as a writer?

• Just in case you haven’t read it yet: “Notes on Craft” (a core text from the past year—a piece to share in writing workshops, in your writing newsletter, with that arts organization you volunteer for that’s still silent, etc.)

• I find it re-centering to hear from other writers and artists on how this time is changing their practice. If you know of any of these stories or wrote one yourself, please share. One I appreciated recently: “to make revolution irresistible” by

  Pranay Somayajula
  .

• Don’t get clever—this reminder from Rasha still rings true. There’s a new conversation out with them on the Death Panel podcast, including a 15-minute guided writing practice for navigating this time.

ASK FOR EDITORS

Have you signed on to PACBI, supported Palestinian writers through direct action, or showed up in solidarity in other tangible ways? How did you approach this?

If you’re an editor or publisher, would you be open to sharing one or two field notes from your process here? This would be a simple way to give others ideas and practical examples. The format can be flexible: lists of practices/questions you found helpful to ask or try, short essays on your process (500 words-ish), or brief interviews (I could go back and forth with you via email).

Please drop me an email if you’re open to this.

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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.