100 Submissions in 100 Days – #40 Blackbird

SUBMISSION PERIOD STARTS NOVEMBER 15

From the side bar of their website:

Blackbird was founded in 2002 as a joint venture of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of English and New Virginia Review, Inc.

From their editorial policy page: 

Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts offers visitors from around the world outstanding fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and reviews, as well as plays, visual art, new media, and video essays, which we present in inventive arrangements with an eye toward revealing the process of their creation.

From their submissions page: 

Blackbird is published twice a year. Our reading period is from November 15, 2016 to April 15, 2017. Unsolicited submissions received outside of the reading period will be disregarded.

Poetry: Send up to six poems at a time. Single-space, please; set your poem as you want it to appear on the printed page. (If submitting online, put all poems into one document, as the submissions software will not allow you to submit individual poems separately.)

General Guidelines
– Send one prose piece or two to six poems at a time, and please submit genres separately.
– Blackbird does not accept previously published work.
– Simultaneous submissions are acceptable so long as they are indicated as such and we are immediately notified upon acceptance elsewhere.
– Translations are welcome so long as permissions have been obtained from the author.
– Online submissions are strongly preferred, though Blackbird will accept submissions by regular mail; mailed submissions may take longer to process.
– We are able to publish long works in all genres, but query Blackbird before you send a prose piece over 8,000 words or a poem exceeding 10 pages.

 

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #22 The Hollins Critic

I don’t know if I can come up with any new insights to the process of submitting now that I am up to #22. It’s all becoming kind of the same as I go along now. Go to the website and check their about and guidelines. Read any online samples of work that they have available. Decide which of my poems will work for the publication. Today’s submission doing this process is The Hollins Critic.

They don’t have an “About” page, but this is on the front page of the site:

The Hollins Critic, published five times a year, presents the first serious surveys of the whole bodies of contemporary writers’ work, with complete checklists. In past issues, you’ll find essays on such writers as John Engels (by David Huddle), James McCourt (by David Rollow), Jane Hirshfield (by Jeanne Larsen), Edwidge Danticat (by Denise Shaw), Vern Rutsala (by Lewis Turco), Sarah Arvio (by Lisa Williams), and Milton Kessler (by Liz Rosenberg).

The Hollins Critic also offers brief reviews of books you want to know about and poetry by poets both new and established. And every issue has a cover portrait by Susan Avishai M.A. ’02.

Also on the front page are these Writer’s Guidelines:

Note: The Hollins Critic reads poetry from September 15 to December 1 each year.
The Critic does not accept unsolicited essays. We rarely accept unsolicited book reviews.
The Critic does not publish fiction.

They have their own submission form system as opposed to using Submittable (I wish all journals used Submittable, but I don’t know if it costs them to do so.) This is from their online submission form instructions:

The Hollins Critic reads poetry from September 15 through December 1. Poems should be no more than a page in length and may not be from current Hollins students. Only poetry submissions will be read. The Hollins Critic does not publish fiction. Fill in all of your contact information. If you are submitting work for someone else, fill in your contact info and fill in the name of the person you are submitting for in the “writer name” field.
Fill in the title(s) of the work(s) you are submitting. If you are submitting multiple works, separate titles with commas. Please combine all poems into a single document and do not submit more than five poems at a time. Please do not submit more than once during a reading period. Please submit all files only as .doc or .docx documents.
If you wish you can fill in the comments field with any additional information you’d like to send, then click submit.
You will then have the option to review your information and confirm that it is correct. Hit continue and you’re done.

Notice that none of the information listed here mentions anything about a payment. The original Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS says they pay $25/poem. I am not going to hold my breath since THEY don’t say that they pay poets.

This journal is another shot in the dark for me since they don’t seem to have any online samples of work that they have previously accepted. I really hate that part. I am on a mission with a time limit plus I have a very small budget so I am not able to order a bunch of journals. SO… that means I will be going through my poems and sending WHATEVER comes up in my archives… I really don’t like doing it this way, but I am determined to make my goal of 100 submissions in 100 days. I chose some of my shorter and more surreal poetry for this entry. Hopefully, that will work. Wish me luck!

Have you ever submitted to a journal without having read it first? How did that go for you? I would love to hear your story in the comments. :-)

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #21 Goblin Fruit

OK for those who are new to the series, I started working with the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS and then made my Google doc titled “SUBMIT POETRY FOR FREE”. Today’s submission to Goblin Fruit comes from the original Google doc but is also a FREE submission.

They don’t have an “About” page, so here is their submission guidelines:

Submissions
Before you submit to Goblin Fruit, there are a few things you might find useful to know; for instance, the submission guidelines. If any question you have has not been addressed below, feel free to query at goblin.fruit[at]gmail[dot]com, and please do read our Frequently Implied Questions for additional information.

What is it we want?
We want poetry that we can call “of the fantastical”, poetry that treats mythic, surreal, fantasy and folkloric themes, or approaches other themes in a fantastical way. Re-write a fairytale, ponder an old story, consider history from an unusual perspective — really, it’s up to you, so long as the fantastical element is there. Since what qualifies as “the fantastical” is easily debatable, however, here’s what we’re not interested in: science fiction poetry (it’s not you, it’s us), horror for horror’s sake, and poetry that’s self-consciously gothic.

We have no prejudice against traditional poetic forms, rhyme, or meter. We’d like to stay that way, so please let the form serve the poem, not the other way around. Prose poems will be harder to sell, mainly because so many of them straddle the flash fiction line.

How much do we pay?
Beginning in January 2016 we will be paying $15.00 USD on publication for original, unpublished poems, and $5.00 for solicited reprints. If you’d like to submit a poem that has been published elsewhere, please query first with the poem’s title, where it was originally published and when. We purchase first North American serial rights and first Worldwide Electronic rights for three months; after that rights revert to the author, although we do request permission to keep the poem in our archives indefinitely.

There is more information. Feel free to click the link above to read the rest.

Since this is an online journal, there is a lot of work that can be perused to see examples. I always find that helpful so I put aside my preference for printed journals (especially since this online journal PAYS). I selected 5 poems to send to them and, as usual, I am hoping they are to the editor’s liking. Crossing my fingers!

Have you been published by a journal? What was your submission experience? Have you submitted but not been accepted? How did you deal with that? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #20 3 Elements

I am only 20 submissions in and this is getting REALLY difficult. I’m wondering if it would actually be easier to just write all new poetry instead of slogging through my archives to find poetry that matches these journals. I’m still not ready to do that but it’s still in the back of my mind. But on to today’s submission to 3 Elements.

From their “About” page:

3Elements Literary Review is a literary journal, of course! We have a presence in Chicago, IL, as well as Des Moines, IA. We publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography.

Each issue begins with the posting of three elements (which are currently Glaze, Thread, Murmur), and ends with a journal filled with the imaginative ways in which each writer and artist transformed those elements. Our journal is uniquely designed and filled with literature that is thoughtfully crafted. We pride ourselves on publishing contributors from all around the globe. We just might be the best online literary magazine you’ve never heard of.

From their “Submit” page:

We are currently accepting submissions for our winter issue.

Please take the time to read our submission guidelines before submitting your material.
Our FAQ section is also very helpful.

Sending us your work is both easy and painless. When you submit to 3Elements Review , we do not charge any submission or reading fee of any kind. So send us your best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, and artwork using the appropriate link below. If you have any questions, you can get in touch with us here.

3Elements Literary Review is Published quarterly as a PDF & Flash book.
Accepted material: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, photography.
Three elements are given each quarter, and your job is to take those elements and create a story using all three.
The three elements for the current submission period are: Glaze, Thread, Murmur.
Due October 31, 2016, for our winter issue, no. 13.

This particular journal has a free download so that is helpful as far as getting a feel for the tastes of the editors. Of course, that means it is an unpaid publication if my poem(s) get(s) accepted, but that’s OK. I figure in order to reach the 100 submissions in 100 days goal, I will have to include the unpaid options.

I selected 5 of my poems that I had not submitted elsewhere. Hopefully one or more will fit with what they are doing. Wish me luck!

Have you ever given yourself a challenge for submitting or writing? How did that go for you? I would love to hear about it in the comments below. 

If you would like to know where to submit your work, you can check out either of the following Google documents:
the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS
my Google doc titled “SUBMIT POETRY FOR FREE”

I was one of the opening poets at an intimate show featuring Saul WIlliams back in November 2012.

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #19 3:AM

Here we are doing another of my 100 submissions. I am slogging along and REFUSE to quit… at least not today! Speaking of the day, today’s submission is to 3:AM.

I’m working from my new Google doc titled “SUBMIT POETRY FOR FREE” that merges the free submissions from the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS (whether they had a fee to submit or not) and the list Trish Hopkinson made from the Entropy article (she filtered it to ONLY list the ones that had free submissions).

On to the 3:AM submission… They don’t have and “About” page which makes it hard to gauge the personality of the zine. They do have links on the menu bar for the different kinds of work they publish so that is helpful.

From their Submissions page:

All writers should contact a relevant editor according to the subject fields listed on our contacts page — one query per piece per editor, please!

Non-Fiction
Complete articles, reviews, pitches, and queries can be sent to a relevant editor (recommended) or to submissions@3ammagazine.com.

Fiction
Note: Fiction submissions are open until 4th November 2016.

Poetry
Note: Poetry submissions are open until 1 January 2017.

Note: Please contact the editor before sending any books, magazines, CDs or DVDs for review consideration. Owing to an already high volume, unsolicited books sent for review will not be acknowledged and correspondence will not be entered into.

Please note, we do not pay for contributions.

It’s pretty succinct and doesn’t give any extra subjective information so it’s definitely good that this zine has the online links. I think the poetry here is varied in style and voice, but it appears they do prefer educated writers and/or poets who have been published in some other relatively prestigious journal (but that may just be my impression based on reading the poet bios).

Since I am trying not to do any simultaneous submissions, finding things to fit into this journal wasn’t easy. I hope the poems I sent meet with their approval. Fingers crossed!

So are YOU doing any submitting? If you have submitted in the past, what has your experience been? I would love to hear from you in the comments! ^_^

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #18 Liminality

Here I am on yet another adventure in theme finding. I have about 70 or so poems that I feel really good about and a couple of hundred that I am “meh” about and maybe a hundred or so that I cringe at yet refuse to take them out of my archive. All of these are the thickly foliaged jungle through which I have to traverse to get to an actual entry.

Today’s submission brings us to Liminality

They don’t have an “About” page, but their header says “Liminality – A Magazine of Speculative Poetry” and on their submissions page, it has the following:

In anthropological terms, liminality is the midpoint of a ritual: the threshold where a person is no longer quite who they were, not yet who they might become. In between masks, what face might you have? What might you be in transit? Where will you go? Everything is possible in that moment; change is its own goal. Liminality is the space between.

Liminality is an online quarterly magazine of speculative poetry edited by Shira Lipkin and Mattie Joiner. We are very pleased to meet you. We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. We’d love to see work that shifts shape, refuses to be to be easily pinned down or categorised. We actively welcome diversity; we want to hear new as well as established voices. Tell us tales we thought we knew, the way only you can tell them. Give us new myths.

Here are the actual guidelines from their submissions page:

Liminality pays $10 per poem, for first worldwide publication rights and non-exclusive anthology rights.

We are currently open to submissions.

We will be open:
January 1 – February 29
April 1 – May 31
July 1 – August 31
October 1 – November 30

To submit, send up to three poems to liminalitypoetry AT gmail.com with the subject line “SUBMISSION – [your name]”. Please include your poems in the body of the e-mail; if you have formatting that makes that untenable, you may attach the poem as an .rtf. You may send up to five poems per reading period. We do not accept reprints or simultaneous submissions. (If the poem has been publicly viewable online, yes, it would be a reprint.) “Dear Editors”, “Dear Mattie and Shira”, and “Dear Shira and Mattie” are all fine as forms of address.

 

It looks like this is a strictly online ‘zine which is OK. I like the idea of being in actual print, but if an online pub is willing to pay, I am down with that too. So… I took a look at the most recent issue to see what they work with.

The first poem in the issue I checked out was titled “Ritual” so it is basically a poem specifically about the theme of the mag. Going to look at more because the one poem I have that would fit with this theme I already submitted someplace else and they are clear in the guidelines that they do NOT do simultaneous submissions. SIGH.

I picked a few that are good poems, but I don’t think they fit exactly. This is getting harder and harder as I keep along this submission challenge. I really don’t want to write all new poems EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS… not like I haven’t done a poem-a-day challenge before, but usually I can write whatever I want instead of having the extra pressure of submission… we shall see what happens as I go along. I feel new poems will be required. Wish me luck!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #17 Bracken

The process of finding work to fit into the theme of a publication is the hardest part of all of this right now. On the home page of Bracken, it says it is “A new market for lyrical fiction and poetry, inspired by the wood and what lies in its shadows.” O-kay. Sounds lovely. It also sounds deeply intimidating because I don’t have poems that I would describe this way.

From their About page:

Bracken is an open-minded, quarterly magazine with a preference for magic realism.

Inspired by old world storytelling with roots in the wood’s shadows, we embrace both the literary and the fantastic—an open scope exploring the Other’s consciousness in the present day.

From their Submit page:

Bracken supports diversity in speculative fiction and welcomes stories by and about individuals of all ages, classes, disabilities, ethnicities, genders, nationalities, races, religions, and sexual orientations.

Bracken purchases first worldwide English-language serial and electronic rights. Each story or poem we acquire will be published on brackenmagazine.com in an electronic quarterly issue. We may also excerpt stories and poems for promotional purposes. The author retains all other rights.

Simultaneous submissions are considered. We just ask that you let us know if your piece was accepted elsewhere.

Send all submissions in the body of an email to subs AT brackenmagazine.com.

~~

We accept most styles of poetry, although we are somewhat biased toward the lyrical over the narrative. Rhymed verse is not discouraged, but we know how difficult it is to do well.

Send us poems that will have us feel the wood’s presences, material and immaterial, known but to be seen anew, or unknown and to be revealed. We want poems that will slip in under the skin, grasp us by the throat, and change the light in the room.

Requirements:

up to 4 poems per submission
no longer than 100 lines (we prefer shorter pieces)
original and unpublished
no multiple submissions
Include:

subject line: Poetry Sub “<A poem title>”
your name and contact information
titles of your poems
a bit about yourself, including brief publication history
your poems in the body of the email; no attachments
Payment: we pay $15/poem

Sadly, my best and most favorite poem that TOTALLY fits into the theme of this magazine is one that is published in my most recent charity poetry book that was done via Swimming with Elephants Publications so I could not include it in this submission. I don’t really have much “forest” or “woods” based poetry or even anything nearly related like the poems in the online samples.

I did the best I could with what I had and submitted the four poems that I was going to send in for a contest but I decided not to submit to anything that has a fee. Even though I like the poems I sent, I am not confident about this submission. I’ll be crossing my fingers anyway.

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #16 Another Chicago Magazine (ACM)

The process of this submitting thing is slow sometimes. Between reading the criteria, then any sample work that’s available online, then going through my work to find appropriate pieces… it takes a bit of time!

Another thing that has taken time is organizing the information I have about WHERE to submit. I’ve merged the original doc with the information Trish Hopkinson got from Entropy to make a new Google doc titled “SUBMIT POETRY FOR FREE” to work from. Today’s submission is from the new list: Another Chicago Magazine.

They don’t have an “about” page so here is the information from the submissions page:

Another Chicago Magazine is a literary magazine that publishes work by both new and established writers. ACM does not accept hard copy submissions.

What Are We Looking For?
We look for nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that goes beyond the artistic and academic to include and address the larger world.

What Do We Publish?
Poetry (No more than 5 poems per submission; please include in the same file.)
Fiction (7,500 words or less)
Nonfiction (25-page limit)
What Do We Not Want?
At this time we are not publishing et al., art, audio/video, interviews, or book reviews. Please contact ACM if you have any inquiries about this.

They use Submittable to accept entries. Here is some additional information from their Submittable page:

(Yes, we have re-opened to submissions for the fall of 2016. And yes, that does begin with a month of fee-free submitting, beginning today, September 13th and going until Wednesday, October 12th.)

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Submit only one piece at time. We will respond to it as quickly as we can, and as soon as we do, you’re free to submit again. Unless submissions are closed. Closed off to you like so many of the better things in life — is what I’d say if I were some blue-blooded aristocrat getting my jollies by ragging on the hoi polloi.

Yes, you can submit your work here and elsewhere simultaneously, but please let us know your work has then been accepted for publication as soon as possible. We’d do the same for you, possibly — one is free to speculate, though.

No previously published work, thank you.

The stipulation of “no previously submitted work” limits me since most of the poems I *really* like, I put in my two perfect-bound chapbooks that are available on Amazon. Pressing on! (Pun fully intended.)

They do have a “magazine” link which gives a peek into the zine, but not the full issue online. I didn’t see any actual examples of the work they accept… so… that meant that I was shooting in the dark on this submission. Not the best practice, but I wanted to get in while the getting was free (The deadline for free submissions is October 12,2016).

I did find five poems to submit to them. I hope they fit into the theme of the zine. Wish me luck!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #15 Notre Dame Review

Using my edited copy of the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS and I am down to today’s submission to Notre Dame Review

From their about page:

The Notre Dame Review is an independent, non-commercial magazine of contemporary American and international fiction, poetry, criticism, and art. Our goal is to present a panoramic view of contemporary art and literature—no one style is advocated over another. We are especially interested in work that takes on big issues by making the invisible seen, that gives voice to the voiceless—work that gives message form through aesthetic experience.

There’s more,  but I will let you read it for yourselves. :-)

From their submissions guidelines:

Excellence is our sole criteria for selection, although we are especially interested in fiction and poetry that take on big issues.

The best way for writers to get a feel for the types of literature that we publish is to read back issues.

We only read submissions from September through November and from January through March. Submissions sent during summer months will be returned unread. We only accept electronic submissions through our Submittable page.

A small gratuity is paid after publication.

Thankfully, they have an issue online so I could look at examples of what they usually accept. I only looked at the current one since the archived issues page is to buy the print version and I don’t have time for that right now.

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #14 Ellipsis

I’m back to using my edited copy of the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS and today I am looking at Ellipsis. The original document had a bad link so I did a Google search to see if they were even still in print. Found that they had a Facebook page that hadn’t been updated since January of this year and the FB page had the same bad link. So, I messaged them on Facebook to see if they were even still in existence. Got a message back with a new link and went to work.

They don’t have an “about” page per se, but they did have this blurb on the main page:

ellipsis is a literature and art journal published each April by the students of  Westminster College in Salt Lake City (since 1965).

On the same page is does mention this about their submissions:

ellipsis accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama August 1 through November 1.  We accept submissions in visual art until January 1.

When I clicked the Submit link on the top menu bar, this is what I found:

We accept English language submissions in poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, drama, and art. Our submission period is August 1 through November 1 for poetry, short fiction, drama, and creative non-fiction. We accept art submissions from August 1 through January 1. Please read the guidelines for each genre below.

Please include a cover letter with a brief contributor’s note with the following: your address, telephone number, and email address.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome but withdraw your submission immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

We pay our contributors $10 for each poetry or art piece and $50 for each prose piece, plus two free copies of the issue.

Submissions cannot be accepted via email.

There was not a link to any online samples of the work they have previously accepted so I basically was taking a shot in the dark with the five poems I sent. Keeping my fingers crossed nonetheless.

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #13 RAIN Magazine

Today I am actually NOT using the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS! I decided to submit to RAIN Magazine which is the literary zine that the local community college produces. There is no separate “about” or “submissions” page, but from the info page linked here, they are looking for local Oregon/Washington writers. They did not list a current submission period so I emailed them some poems and we will see if they reply to tell me if they are even doing submissions at all. Still, it counts as a submission for my current challenge. Wish me luck! ^_^

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #12 Contrary

I’m still working from my edited copy of the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. I’m still spending a HUGE amount of time scrolling through my archives of HUNDREDS of poems I have written over the past FIFTEEN years. It’s an arduous process at times filled with a lot of NOPE in respect to the poems I go through and whether or not they are worthy to submit. In spite of all that, I am very satisfied with my progress and consistency in maintaining this challenge I have set for myself. Today’s submission is to Contrary.

From their about page:

Contrary® was founded in 2003 at the University of Chicago by students and alumni of Chicago’s Master of Arts Program in the Humanities. It was quickly embraced and has been abundantly nourished by graduates of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing program. It now operates independently and without a thought of profit on the South Side of Chicago and publishes writers from throughout the world.

From their submissions page

Payment – For original commentary, fiction, and poetry, Contrary Magazine pays $20 per author per issue, regardless of the number of works or nature of the submission. Reviews and Contrary Blog posts are usually unpaid. The author must email us an invoice within six months of acceptance for the payment to be processed. If no invoice is received within six months of acceptance, author forfeits payment, but all rights remain in force. Upon receipt of invoice, payments will be made through Paypal.

Simultaneous submissions – We accept simultaneous submissions, but you must inform us when submissions are simultaneous, and you must withdraw your submission immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere (you may resubmit any parts of your submission that remain unpublished). A submission constitutes an agreement to publish in Contrary under the guidelines on this page. Accepted works go into production immediately and may not be withdrawn under any circumstances.

Our deadline, response, and publication cycle – Contrary receives submissions throughout the year and publishes four issues per year, with the change of seasons. In Spring our deadline is March 1, and the issue appears on or about April 1. Following that cycle, our deadline for Summer is June 1, Autumn is Sept. 1, Winter is Dec. 1. We begin each issue from scratch, with completely new submissions. If your submission is accepted, you will hear from us. If not, you can always verify that it was not accepted by viewing the issue for which you submitted. We do not send rejection letters.

Here is another one that I had a time finding work to fit the theme. I hope my poems are “contrary” enough. Crossing my fingers!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #11 Through the Gate

Still working off of the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. Now that I have my copy of the spreadsheet organized, the hard part has been scrolling through my work to find something that fits the tone of where I want to submit. Today’s submission is to Through the Gate.

 

They don’t seem to have an “about” page but this is from their submissions page:

We are looking for fantastical poetry of literary and emotional depth from a diversity of voices and perspectives. Our definition of fantastical is quite fluid, encompassing fantasy, magic realism, myth, folklore, surrealism and slipstream. We desire poetry that is atypically beautiful, unconventionally imaginative and boundary-crossing. We are not interested in poetry that is quite obviously science fiction or mainstream, but work that blurs the lines between such genres and the fantastical is welcome.

We place no limitations on what we will consider in regards to form or style. Try us with anything from prose and hypertext poetry to sonnets and villanelles. We wish to see everything: divergent, traditional, curious and otherwise.

As we are a publication that seeks to diversify what the fantastical offers, we delight in receiving work from underrepresented perspectives, including feminist, queer, asexual, non-binary, trans*, neurodiverse, disabled and multicultural voices.

I honestly am not sure if my submissions are “fantastical” enough for this journal but I did my best with the three I sent in. Wish me luck!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #10 Ecotone

I spent a lot of time organizing my copy of the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. I finally got it all set the way I wanted with the journals with the nearer deadlines at the top. Today’s submission is to Ecotone.

From their about page:

Ecotone’s mission is to publish and promote the best place-based work being written today. Founded at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2005, the award-winning magazine features writing and art that reimagine place, and our authors interpret this charge expansively. An ecotone is a transition zone between two adjacent ecological communities, containing the characteristic species of each. It is therefore a place of danger or opportunity, a testing ground. The magazine explores the ecotones between landscapes, literary genres, scientific and artistic disciplines, modes of thought.

From their submissions page:

Ecotone, the literary magazine dedicated to reimagining place, welcomes a wide range of voices. Please review our complete guidelines before submitting. We strongly encourage writers to read work we’ve published before sending their own. A selection of work from recent issues is featured here on our website, where you can also order a copy of the magazine.

Ecotone will be open to submissions, by post and via Submittable, from August 15–October 1, and again from December 15–February 1. We adhere strictly to posted dates. Any mailed submission postmarked outside the listed submission periods will be recycled unread. We may occasionally close submissions within these window for administrative reasons; if we do so, the new dates will be posted.

Thankfully they have some of their archives online for viewing. Even with that, it felt like it took me a long time to find poems that fit with the tone of this publication. I hope I at least came close. I submitted five poems so maybe ONE will spark them. Fingers crossed!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #9 The Impressment

Spent another long day finishing up going through the 173 publications listed on the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. I made a personal copy and added a column for the end date for submissions. Then I sorted by the end date.

Today’s submission is to The Impressment.

From their About page:

The Impressment Gang Journal Association is a not for profit organization that is dedicated to the literary and arts community in Halifax, Nova Scotia (and the world!). Our primary focuses are to print impressive new writing, and engage in cultural criticism and review. We try to stay on top of these goals by attending local festivals, events, and reaching out to like-minded individuals and organizations. We also throw fun parties with no cover, cheap drinks, and pay-what-you-can magazines.

From their Submissions page:

* We like original and innovative work.

** We accept submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, review and writing in general.

*** We print three times per year: spring, summer, fall/winter.

**** To get the best idea of what we are looking for, read our publication.

This is just the first part of the page. If you are going to submit, you’ll need to read the full guidelines via the link above.

I clicked the Archive link on the top menu bar but it took me to a page that requires a password to enter. So I went back to the Home page and scrolled down to find that they did have a link to online samples of past items published. It’s a very small sampling, though. Only 3 items. It will have to do because I don’t want to wait for a print copy to be sent to me.

I went ahead and selected the six poems I submitted based on the samples I was able to read. Further down on the submissions page it does warn that there is up to a SIX MONTH wait time on responses to submissions. It’s a good thing I changed my goal from 100 rejections in 100 days to be 100 submissions in 100 days. It’s going to be a long wait on replies from most of the mags and journals!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #8 Tin House

I spent most of today checking the submission periods listed on the public Google doc Journals That Pay FOR POEMS to be sure that I wasn’t missing any publications that expire this month. Good thing I did! Tin House changed their submission policy and ONLY take unsolicited submissions during September which means that TODAY is the last day for me to submit! SO… on to the details for today’s submission.

From the About Us page:

The first issue of Tin House magazine arrived in the spring of 1999, the singular lovechild of an eclectic literary journal and a beautiful glossy magazine. Publisher Win McCormack said of the effort, “I wanted to create a literary magazine for the many passionate readers who are not necessarily literary academics or publishing professionals.”

With the help of New York editors Rob Spillman and Elissa Schappell, along with managing editor Holly MacArthur, McCormack accomplished just that. Tin House offers an artful and irreverent array of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews as well as columns on food and drink, out-of-print and underappreciated books, and a literary crossword puzzle. Perhaps most indicative of the magazine’s mission to stake out new territory and showcase not only established, prize-winning authors is its commitment that every issue include the work of an undiscovered fiction writer and poet.

From their submission guidelines:

We accept unsolicited submissions twice a year: in September and March.

Please submit only one story or essay (10,000-word limit), or up to five poems at a time. Multiple submissions will be returned unread. We ask that you please wait until you hear back from us before submitting new work for consideration. If you currently have a submission in our system but wish to submit something new instead, please withdraw the older submission via Submittable.

We shall do our best to respond within six months but this period may be longer. If you have not received a response from us within six months, we will be happy to receive e-mail inquiries and will do our best to respond. (For the remainder of 2016, response times may be slow as we dedicate ourselves to reading the record number of submissions received in the last reading period.) Please do not call the office with inquiries. We appreciate your patience!

Tin House does accept simultaneous submissions. In the event that the work is accepted for publication elsewhere, please do us the courtesy of informing us promptly.

Only previously unpublished works will be considered for publication.

Cover letters should include a word count and indicate whether the submission is fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

Manuscripts transmitted via fax or e-mail will not be accepted for consideration.

I do notice that quite a few publications prefer or specify that they want previously unpublished works. Most don’t define what they consider to be “published” whereas some go so far to say that anything posted publicly online (even if it is in a personal blog) is considered published. I personally am in the process of moving my poetry from public to private on my blogs to avoid any conflict.

From what I can see, there does not seem to be an online archive to give examples of this mag’s prior work so I am shooting in the dark since I don’t have time to order a back issue. Taking a HUGE chance but we shall see what ends up coming out of it.

I am going to submit one prose piece to the fiction category, and select five poems from the ones I did from prompts on Rachel Mckibbens’ blog over the years. Crossing my fingers!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #7 The Nashville Review

I am getting into a groove with this submission thing I think. It takes a while for each one because once I find one that is open, I have to read some of the prior issues so that I know what the “feel” of the journal is. THEN, I have to go through my poems to see which one(s) fit that feel. Today I am doing that process with Nashville Review

Nashville Review is a publication of Vanderbilt University that has content going back to at least 2010 (that’s as far as I scrolled through). They don’t have an “About” page, though.

Their submission guidelines are very thorough so I will only put the most pertinent parts that apply to me here.

READING PERIODS
You may submit fiction, poetry, and nonfiction three times a year: January, May and September.

GENERAL GUIDELINES
All submissions may be made through our online submissions manager. Please do not email your submission, as it will not be read. We encourage simultaneous submissions: if your work is accepted elsewhere, wonderful! Just leave a note via Submittable, so we know the piece has been taken elsewhere.

POETRY GUIDELINES
We’re excited to read all types of poetry. We’re entirely open to publishing tight formalism alongside sprawling, experimental work.

FEATURED ARTIST GUIDELINES
Following our website redesign, we’re placing a much greater emphasis on visual art. Beginning with Spring 2015, each subsequent issue will have a featured artist. This allows for up to thirteen pieces of your art to be showcased, and to be paid $100 for doing so. Submissions must be in a landscape/horizontal orientation. Ideal dimensions are 1492×682. Other sizes will end up being slightly cropped. Work—paintings, drawings, photography—may be submitted as attachments to the Editor at thenashvillereview@gmail.com, or simply direct us to your website if it showcases available work.

I’ve included the artist guidelines since I may submit some of my art as well. Not sure yet, though.

From their submission form:

Up to five poems may be submitted. Please submit and upload all poems into one file. Length limit: 8 pages. Only one submission per open reading period.

I went ahead and submitted five poems to this journal. Fingers crossed!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #6 Brightly Press (Contest Entry)

Today’s submission to Brightly Press is NOT from the public Google doc  Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. I actually came across this one on Trish Hopkinson’s website from this entry in her blog. Since it is a contest, it kind of is in a different category but I will count it because I have to get to 100 dang it.

This contest is sponsored by the Brightly Press specifically for their Facebook friends, so I made sure to LIKE their page before submitting.

From the about page on Facebook:

Brightly Press publishes writers that excite us. Our writing contests are open to all. We do not favor established artists over new, we look at the work.

Brightly Press is owned and operated by Kelle Grace Gaddis. The press was founded in May of 2014. Assistant editor, Martin O’Malley.

From the contest information:

How to enter:

1) Submit one to three poems to brightlypress@gmail.com by October 31st. No theme. Open to all styles.

2) Visit the Brightly Press Facebook page on November 15th to see if you’ve won. Winners will also be posted at our website http://www.brightlypress.com.

3) If they receive fewer than 30 entries we may extend the submission date.

Prizes – All winners will be published by on the Brightly Press website in addition to the following awards

1st Prize – $100 and a copy of Shake The Tree Volume Two (A $30 book that we sell for $15 to provide affordable access to the voices of our time).
2nd Prize – $50 and a copy of Shake The Tree Volume Two.
3rd Prize – A copy of Shake The Tree Volume Two

It doesn’t specify the format for submission. In the email? As an attachment? If as an attachment, what kind of file? I submitted 3 poems in a Word file with each poem on a separate page and my information on the first page. This was in addition to having the information in the email itself.  Wish me luck!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

 

 

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #4 The Baltimore Review

I am still going down the list in the public Google document Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. So far I have submitted to A Public Space (five poems), to AGNI (three poems), and to Alyss (four poems). I think this is the last day that I will list all the prior journals. I can see how by the end it would take up the whole post! >_<

I have to admit that I find this entire process deeply intimidating since prior to now I have usually been approached by people familiar with my work to submit to the zine or journal they edit. The only time that wasn’t the case was the very first submission where I wrote a poem specifically for that particular online journal and thankfully was accepted.   This is where the “results not typical” asterisk pops up at the bottom of the screen.

Of course in all of those cases, it was UNPAID publications. Which I suppose is why these current submissions are a bit more mentally challenging even though I have decided NOT to write new work for each. Even with this, the process of sifting through my archive of HUNDREDS of poems that I have written over the past FIFTEEN YEARS is somewhat daunting. BUT I AM DOING IT ANYWAY!

On to today’s submission: The Baltimore Review.

From their about page:

The Baltimore Review was founded by Barbara Westwood Diehl in 1996 as a literary journal publishing short stories and poems, with a mission to showcase the best writing from the Baltimore area, from across the U.S., and beyond. Our mission remains just that. However, in our online format, we can now bring that fine writing to the world’s attention, more frequently, and at less cost. We can also explore new ways to bring the world of writers and writing to the reader’s attention.

From their submission guidelines:

Payment for non-contest submissions is Web exposure, a copy of the annual compilation in which the author’s work appears, and a small payment ($40 Amazon gift certificate or $40 through PayPal, if preferred). We hope to continue this as long as funding is available. We also nominate our contributors’ work for every possible prize, and we send copies of the print compilation to the Best American series and other prize anthologies.

Submit 1-3 poems. No fee. Please submit all poems in one document, not individually. If you later need to withdraw one or two poems, please note this in Submittable. No need to email us. No need to withdraw the submission. One submission per reading period. Name, address, phone number, and email address on top of the page for each poem. Or include contact information in your bio box. Poems should be single-spaced, titled, with clear stanza breaks.

I submitted three poems to this journal. Per the info in the Google doc linked above, the average response time is 90 days. Wish me luck!

Are you submitting your work to journals and magazines? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

 

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #2 AGNI

I am going down the list from the public Google document Journals That Pay FOR POEMS. Yesterday’s post was A Public Space, where I did TWO submissions of a total of FIVE poems but I am only counting it as ONE submission.

Today’s submission will be to AGNI. AGNI was founded in 1972 at Antioch College by undergraduate Askold Melnyczuk, a then-aspiring (now accomplished) writer with his own vision of a vehicle for alternative news, visual arts, and literature. Melnyczuk was interested in creating a magazine that would feature a new generation of writers and visual artists. AGNI publishes poetry, short fiction, and essays.

From their guidelines page is some good news for those accepted:

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, every writer AGNI publishes in 2015, whether in print or online, will receive double our old standard rates. AGNI now pays $20 per page for prose and $40 per page for poetry, with a $300 maximum. We believe writers should be paid as well as possible, and we’re proud to have been paying equally for print and web publication since the advent of AGNI Online in 2003.

To submit, you have to create a profile. The submission guidelines are linked on the profile creation page. I couldn’t find where it gave an approximate time for them to let people know if the work had been accepted or not. I also didn’t see any specification on what type of file they preferred to receive. In the Google document linked above, it lists the average response time as 70 days so I will add that to my submissions reply reminder calendar.

The submission fee is listed as zero on the public Google document Journals That Pay FOR POEMS, but you can’t read full prior issues online. You have to order the print magazine issue to see the full content, but they do have a few titles available to read online. Just like with my prior submission, I read the items found online.

From the items they have on their online magazine, the overall style feels intellectual and sometimes abstract. It also seems that they favor shorter poems. I am going to send a three of my best poems (different than the ones submitted to A Public Space) and see what happens. Wish me luck! ^_^

Are you submitting your work? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

 

100 Submissions in 100 Days – #1 A Public Space

The first submission I will do is to A Public Space.

A Public Space is an independent magazine of literature and culture founded in 2006. Most of the categories are accepting submissions until April 2017, but there are a couple that end soon so be sure to check these out ASAP. Their submission guidelines can be found on the About page (you’ll have to scroll down to see the section).

From the first paragraph of the guidelines:

We accept unsolicited submissions from September 15–April 15, and recommend reading an issue or two before you submit your work—subscribe today or explore the online archive. The best way to submit is through Submittable: it’s easy to use, saves time and paper and postage, and enables you to keep track of your submission.

It is pretty much standard advice to read the journal you are submitting to so that you know what their “sound” or “vibe” is and can submit work that compliments it. The reading is the part that makes submitting take so long for me. If not for that sage bit of instruction, I could just pick random files from my archive and send away willy-nilly. This is NOT a good way to do it! :-P

Now be advised that for this particular publication they DO NOT let you read full prior issues online if you are not a subscriber to their magazine. There are a few items listed as “Public Access”, but most of the entries are just the first paragraph. So, even though the submission fee is listed as zero on the Journals that PAY FOR POEMS  public Google document, if you actually want to read the ALL content, it will cost the price of a subscription. I personally only read the public access content since my life does not allow for much recreational reading these days.

I submitted one poem to one category and four poems in another. Because they are a quarterly journal, the response time can be upwards of four months. Wish me luck! ^_^

Are you submitting your work? What has your experience been so far? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

100 Rejections in 100 Days

The day after tomorrow there will only be 100 days left in 2016. I can’t even remember where I read about having a goal of 100 rejections in a year. With the year winding down I guess that means I will have to go for 100 rejections in 100 days.

I have THOUSANDS of poems if one counts haiku/senryu/couplets and the like. Heck, even NOT counting the micro-poetry, I have HUNDREDS of poems. So the hard part will be to decide WHICH poems to submit WHERE.

Because I am on a budget, I will have to find 100 literary mags that DON’T charge a submission fee. This public Google Doc has 172 lit mags that pay for poetry and a lot of them are free submissions.

Now, I could have titled this “100 SUBMISSIONS in 100 Days,” but the idea is that the ratio of acceptance is low so it’s best to just assume that they all are going to be rejected and then it is slightly less heartbreaking to get the “no” letters. That is the theory anyway. We’ll see how it actually goes.

Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates as I submit and get replies! ^_^