CALL FOR POEMS by the Editor of R A T T L E

Dear Nancy,

I’m sorry to be writing so soon after bugging you about our annual contest, but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the two deadlines we have coming up this fall. 

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The Rattle Anthology of Children’s Poetry
Deadline: September 15^th

This is a new project that we’ve just started, which will be an annual (and separate) print anthology of poems written by children.  There are numerous anthologies available of adult poets writing for children, but very few opportunities for children to share their work with adults. As Sharon Olds said in our interview a few years back:“There’s not a bad poet in first grade. None of them are anything but fresh and original … they don’t know how to avoid being original.” We’ve already found this to be true with the dozen or so amazing poems that we’ve accepted for the first publication so far, and we’re excited to keep exploring what young poets can teach us.

And of course this is a great opportunity to encourage children to engage in art from an early age.  So if you know of any young poets—ages 15 and younger—have their parent/guardian send us some of their work. And please help us spread the word.  The full guidelines are here (note the unique email address):www.rattle.com/poetry/children/

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Love Poems
Deadline: October 15^th

For adults, our next themed issue will feature nothing but Love Poems. If you haven’t already, please send us a few (feel free to mix non-love poems into the batch; they don’t all have to be love poems).  Keep in mind that we see a difference between love poems and poems about love.  A love poem is written for, to, or about someone (or something), even if the real meaning is disguised.  It should be possible for a love poem to be given to someone as a token of love.  Poems about the nature of love in general, or the loss of love, and so on, might not necessarily be love poems by this definition.  I hope that makes sense—but if not, don’t fret, just send the poem in, and we’ll decide.  To submit, follow our regular guidelines, and mention in the subject line or cover letter that there’s a love poem in there (not that we wouldn’t notice, but as we near the deadline we’ll start to read those submissions first).

www.rattle.com/poetry/submissions/guidelines/

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Remember that regular submissions to Rattle are always free, and we always appreciate them. We don’t solicit poems from anyone—every poem that we publish came in as a submission and went through the same enthusiastic but subjective and mountainous vetting process.  We’re just looking for poems to love, and couldn’t care less who wrote them.  But not all poems resonate, even when they’re well-written, so the more submissions we receive the better.

While I’m emailing you, it would be foolish of me not to include some promotional junk, so really quick:  Visit our website (www.rattle.com) and read a new poems from our back issues every day.  Sign up in the box at the upper right to receive those poems by email automatically each morning. We also have something like 400 poems read by their authors in our audio archive (www.rattle.com/poetry/audio/), so check that out, too.  All of this stuff is free, of course.  And if you still haven’t gotten enough of us, you can follow Rattle on Twitter (@rattlepoetry) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/RattleMagazine).  I give away free copies of the magazine there from time to time, and raffle of hand-critiques of your poems, and participate in all manner of tomfoolery.

That’s all—thanks for listening and, if this sounds interesting, send us some new poems.  Particularly for the Young Poets Anthology—we have about a dozen poems lined up so far, but I want to publish at least 50 and the deadline is soon.  Even if neither of these particular calls relate to you, we’re always reading for our summer and winter open issues, so feel free to send us any poems, any time.

Best wishes,
Tim

Rattle Production Schedule:

Issue - Release Date - Feature

#42 – Winter 2013 – Open / Poetry Prize

#43 – Spring 2014 – Love Poems (Deadline October 15^th, 2013)
#44 – Summer 2014 – Open
#45 – Fall 2014 – Poets of Faith (Deadline April 15^th, 2014)
#46 – Winter 2014 – Open / Poetry Prize

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Timothy Green
Editor / Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
tim@rattle.com
www.rattle.com