Poetry Bulletin: November 2024
"...to provide the shelter necessary to keeping each other, let alone each other’s artistry, alive."
“In this way, the job of the editor is not merely to be a listener but to be a cultivator of relations: to provide the shelter necessary to keeping each other, let alone each other’s artistry, alive... I learned that to be a mizna was to be an im/possible wound: to know that many are unwilling to meet us in the depths of our catastrophe, and thus, possibility emerges when confronted by the miracle of finding our people and becoming more radically ourselves together.” — George Abraham, in the new issue of Mizna. I keep returning to this essay. It’s helped me land over the past week, with language (imagination/perspective) I needed to keep showing up with all of you, here in the bulletin and elsewhere. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who needs some re-orienting and re-grounding now… really hope this essay gets shared and read widely.
Next week, on November 21, Darius Simpson is hosting a free virtual workshop and discussion on Political Poetics. You can register here.
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.
In Practice
“a move in some poems that irks me lately is the move from recognizing injustice & suffering to a form of ‘but look at this small beautiful thing.’ it rings false. or i want more than small beautiful things in an otherwise intolerable world. i want justice & more livable worlds” — Chen Chen
“I think the poetic line is the perfect space to enact transformation. To enact possibility. What’s a landscape, if not a space we build with this intention? The poetic line is the thing that resists foreclosure, that bucks against determinism.” — C. T. Salazar, with notes on the elements of the river and the poetic line
Over 5,500 writers and book workers have signed on to a boycott of “Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.” You can sign the open letter here.
This week, one of my own projects comes out: Surfacing, a book of closing practices for creative writers. You can get it at Bookshop.org or your local bookstore. (Outside the U.S., the book is also available at Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and McNally Robinson.)
Creative Support: Workshops, Awards & More
If you’re writing and submitting in solidarity with writers facing genocide now, I included tips for researching and vetting organizations in this document. Even a couple minutes of searching Twitter, Substack, or an organization’s website can be clarifying.
Dec 2 — For small presses affected by the closure of SPD, CLMP has announced the Small Press Futures Fund—and your press does not have to have 501(c)3 status to apply, thank goodness. (Know of other opportunities like this? Please share!)
Dec 2 — Foglifter Press is seeking a community manager. This position comes with an honorarium.
Dec 31 — Sundress Publications Microgrant for Palestinian Writers
Jan 17 — The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment is open for their 2025 book awards. This is a post-publication award for books released in 2023 or 2024.
Feb 1 — Sundress Academy for the Arts is now open for applications to its spring 2025 residency. They use a reparations payment model, with support grants available to cover the cost of travel, food, and child care.
Songs of the Sunbirds, a column at New Orleans Review, continues to seek submissions in a variety of formats, from poetry to video to letters and art and more. All contributions are paid, and submissions are free. NOR is also open to submissions (fee-free for certain groups) in a number of other genres right now.
Upcoming Deadlines
Between now and the end of 2024, 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.
There are 10+ deadlines for full-length poetry books between now and the end of 2024. The full spreadsheet of upcoming deadlines is available here.
Has your favorite publisher committed to PACBI?
When in doubt, ask. 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.
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.
Thank you, Emily. Always such a rich resource.