I dedicate this poem to all the writers wading through guidelines, editors' expectations, and rejection letters this hopeful summer.

Submission Guidelines

September theme: On The Couch

            for a proposal to send to potential publishers

We accept anything: poetry, napkin doodles, instructions for assembling killer robots, a photograph of the poem you wrote with a sharpie marker on top of graffiti sprayed on a ripped up advertisement, poems which are heartfelt, but not sappy, work that goes beyond celebration and observation to suggest new ways to think and write about birds, work that makes us look at ourselves in a new way & work that challenges (or, you know, confirms in some subversive way) the stereotypes that paint our generation as lazy or stupid or narcissistic or victims of the times.

We will never accept “cookie cutter” writers (you know who you are).

Helpful hints from the poetry editor:

Be image oriented (show don't tell).
Don’t have heavy end-stop rhymes.
Have a clever use of language (i.e. slant & internal rhymes, alliteration & assonance).

The weirder the better.

Things that are funny make us laugh.

We're looking for dramatic monologues, or characters talking to God.

No fan fiction, no erotica, no work that is cliché or unoriginal

Submissions containing sex, violence, or profanity simply for the sake of “shock value”, will surely be rejected

Feel free to send submissions, but you will likely not receive a response until (gulp)… December? Send up to 3 poems at a time. Submitting more than 8 tends to conceal the merits of individual poems. No epics, PLEASE!!

1^st prize: $100 & an Osprey backpack, 2^nd prize: gift certificate for a pair of La Sportiva Mountain running shoes. All prizewinners will receive a prize certificate suitable for framing.

Include a cover letter with brief bio & statement describing your connection to Nebraska.  Bios should be professionally written, not comical or irreverent.

Only Southern poets (born, living, spent time in prison, or otherwise dallied somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon) will be considered or the material needs to be plainly set in or derived from the South.

If your poem has non-standard grammar/styling, please note it in your cover letter so that it doesn’t affect our decision. Line length may be edited to fit chapbook publication format, 3-line haiku need not to conform to strict syllable count. The poet should also know, fairly clearly, what is or is not good work and send only that.

We reserve the right to print or not print any & all submissions.

You will probably not get paid, except in our eternal gratitude.

To submit now click here.