Spoken Word

22 Feb 2023

Spoken Word Episode 3: Part 1 Competitions and Events

Arts, James WF Roberts, Joy Media, Joy94.9, Literature, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Podcasting, Society & Culture, Spoken Word

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Hey gang a bit of different feel to this week’s show. We are looking at the life and work of Walt Whitman famed queer 19th Century American poet. But, first we look at some of the upcoming events and competitions for queer poets around the world.

New queer poetry is in an exciting place.

Below are some interesting publishing opportunities. Please read carefully and make sure you adhere to the guidelines as much as possible so that can they accept your work.

With all submissions, please send a single word or pdf document containing your work, with a small additional paragraph about yourself. We judge the poems blind, so try to keep your name off the actual document if possible. Don’t worry too much about what to say in the paragraph. We just want to know a little bit about you, how you identify, if you’ve been published elsewhere, and what your work is like. Please don’t include any graphics or images.

We’re based in London, but you can be from anywhere. Submission is free and, with our anthologies, you retain your copyright. We know how difficult it is to get published, so we’re happy for you to submit elsewhere simultaneously. We don’t publish work that has already been published online or in print.

Our Anthologies

14Poems publish their anthology of the most exciting LGBTQ+ poets around 3 times a year and we want to include you! Our submissions window is rolling, but the deadline for the next issue is May 1st 2023.

To be considered, email up to 5 poems in a single pdf or word document, with a small paragraph about yourself to hello@14poems.com. We pay £25 for each poem published.

Bi+ Lines anthology

We’re excited to announce a new anthology for 2023 in collaboration with Helen Bowell (helenbowell.co.uk), writer, producer, critic and the poet behind the brilliant pamphlet The Barman (Bad Betty, 2022). Funded by Arts Council England, Bi+ Lines will be the first anthology of bi+ poets in English and we want to read your poems! The submissions window is open now and closes on 31st May 2023. You can submit your poems here.

More on the theme from Helen, who will be editing the anthology: “Bi+ people appear to exist between categories, and for that reason they have often historically been excluded from both queer and straight spaces. I’m particularly interested in investigating this genre-defying existence because it resonates with my experience of class and being mixed race. I think poetry is especially suited to exploring in-betweenness, and while I’m open to all kinds of poems, I particularly welcome genre-bending work – whether you are playing with fragments, collage, found poetry, prose, drama or just how your poem looks on the page.”

For more inspiration, there are eight pay-as-you-feel poetry workshops for bi+ poets taking place online and in London, Manchester, Norwich and Glasgow between March and April 2023. To find out more about the Bi+ Lines project, follow @bi_poets on Twitter and Instagram.

If you’re ready to send us your poems, you can upload a maximum of 5 via the google form (here). We’ll be paying £75 for each poem.

Taking Submissions: Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia (Early Listing)

Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle are seeking previously unpublished stories of 1,000 to 4,000 words for Shortwave Publishing’s Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.

Wilted Pages takes its inspirations from works such as The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, and The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read. Gloomy buildings, secret societies, futuristic boarding schools, gothic yet modern aesthetics, and occult learning are among the pleasures to be found in this subgenre.

We are looking for a broad range of HORROR, DARK FANTASY, and SCIENCE FICTION HORROR concerning

- Schools, colleges, universities, and/or other educational institutions

- Libraries and books

- Laboratories and research facilities

- Teachers and students

- Scholarship and scholarly life

- Esoteric/occult learning

- Educational technology

- The future of learning

- The knowledge economy

Submission Guidelines

- File: .docx or .doc

- Format: Double-spaced, Times New Roman, include email address and byline on the first page (*address and phone number not needed)

- Length: 1,000 to 4,000 words (*no exceptions)

- Emailed to: wiltedpagesanthology@gmail.com

- Include a brief cover letter (A third-person bio — no more than 100 words)

- Subject line: SUBMISSION: Story Title — Word Count — Author Name

- Submissions open March 8, 2023 and close March 24, 2023. We would love to see work from writers from all backgrounds and locations. Please don’t self reject!

- March 1-31, 2023: Extended deadline for underrepresented voices—people of color, LGBTQ2S+, neurodiverse people, people with disabilities, those of marginalized genders.

- Submissions sent before and after the submissions period will not be read.

Simultaneous/Multiple/Reprint Submissions?

- You may submit simultaneously to other markets, but please notify us right away if the story is accepted elsewhere.

- You may send up to two submissions in total (Please wait for a pass on the first submission before sending a second. If accepted, please do not send a second, as we will publish only one per author.)

- Original, unpublished stories only. No reprints.

Wish Lists

- Diverse casts

- Mixed genres

- Experimental

- Character-focused

- A distinct sense of setting and atmosphere

- Character-focused storytelling

- The weird, experimental, and surprising

Handle with Care

We are open to reading a wide variety of content but ask that you include a content note if your piece contains the following:

- Discriminatory language and ideas including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, eugenics, classism, ageism, ableism.

- Violence, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse

- Depictions of self-harm and suicide

Please include your content notes on both cover letter and your submission document so that they will be available to those assigning submissions to first readers as well as to the readers themselves.

Payment & Rights

$0.05/word per accepted submission for first world print/digital rights with six months exclusivity.

The Editors:

Ai Jiang spent several years as a tutor of English Literature and ESL and was part of the VicOne Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto during her undergraduate studies. She is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Creative Writing program. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in F&SF, The Dark Magazine, The Deadlands, among others. Ai has experience as a reader and editor at Orca Literary Journal and Strange Horizons, guest editing for If There’s Anyone Left, and was the fiction editor for Orion’s Belt and From Arthur’s Seat.

Christi Nogle taught at Boise State University for twenty years. She is the author of the novel Beulah from Cemetery Gates Media and three forthcoming collections from Flame Tree Press, beginning with The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future. Her work appears in publications such as Dark Matter Magazine, Vastarien, and Obsolescence from Shortwave Publishing. Christi is an Associate Editor at PseudoPod and, with Willow Dawn Becker, co-edited Mother: Tales of Love and Terror from Weird Little Worlds.