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!!
1st prize: $100 & an Osprey backpack, 2nd
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.
