Rattle magazine

I’ve had the round robin email from the above, and there are several inspiring opportunities. I’m copying and pasting below:

1) We’re currently seeking poems written in traditional or adopted Japanese forms for our spring issue—deadline: October 15^th. After that we’re looking for New Yorker Poets (you have to have lived at least half your life in NYC), and Scientist Poets. We’re also reading open submissions any time, and (from now on) will have an open section in every issue—but if any of these themes apply to you, please visit our Calls for Submissions page for more information.

2) We’re also continuing our new program online called Poets Respond—every Sunday we’ll publish a poet’s immediate response to a news event that occurred within the last week. You can read this week’s response, “Labor Day: Atlantic City” by Peter E. Murphy. If you’d like to submit a poem about a current event, there’s a link to use at the bottom of that page. The deadline for consideration each week is Friday at midnight, and the poems have been met with great enthusiasm—including a very positive write-up in the LA Times last week.

3) Given how much fun poets are having with the news a prompt, we’re also experimenting with an “Ekphrasis Challenge.” Issue #45’s cover artist, Judy Keown has supplied a photograph and we’re asking poets to submit poetic responses to it by October 1^st. Judy and I will each pick our favorite, and they’ll be published online—those poets will also receive $25. So if that sounds interesting, visit that page.

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Stating the obvious…?

If you are new to submitting, here’s another thing I learnt the hard way: keep track of everything you submit – either in a large notebook (my method) or in a spreadsheet. Make sure you enter the name of the publication/competition. Each individual piece should also have a separate listing.

For example, if I was sending three poems, ‘Faint’, ‘Hello’ and ‘Not today’, to a magazine called ‘Submissions’, I would enter ‘Submissions’ under ‘S’ in my spreadsheet or notebook, and list the 3 poems. I would then turn to ‘F’ and enter ‘Faint’ and that I had sent it to ‘Submissions’. I would do the same for ‘Hello’ and ‘Not today’ (hmm think I might use that title!).

Don’t forget to note the date next to each entry.

If you get a rejection, it helps to note not just the rejection, but also the date of the rejection – this will be a useful guideline if you want to submit to the same publication again, and can’t remember how long they took to get back to you the previous time.