Deadline: December 15, 2016
Payment: Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.

Eye to the Telescope 23, the Robots issue, will be edited by Brian Garrison.

Robots and computers have served to make our lives both infinitely easier and infinitely more complex. They are created by humans, and yet they mystify us. We can’t quite decide whether we should classify robots alongside shards of amethyst silent underground, twisting vines of morning glory climbing toward the sun, mosquitoes buzzing in search of blood, or researchers interpreting their experimental data. Maybe they belong in a category of their own.

Literature has explored doomsday scenarios of machine warfare; speculated about the key ingredients of intelligence, emotion, and consciousness as robots enter our workplaces, game rooms, bedrooms, etc.; showed us how hackers and other cyberpunks might live in an increasingly computerized society; and otherwise done what literature is supposed to do—make things up.

For this issue of Eye to the Telescope, it is your opportunity to tell everyone about your hopes or fears about life among machines. Let us place your poetry here, to be faithfully communicated to the world through humanity’s largest electronic undertaking so far, the internet. Tell us: where are we going, where have we been?

Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

• Please send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “ETTT sub:” followed by the poet’s name.
• Please submit 1–5 poems in English (in body of email or attached as .rtf).
• Include a short bio.
• Deadline: December 15, 2016. The issue will appear on January 15, 2017.

Payment and rights

• Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
• Payment can be made to either the translator or the poet or split between the translator and the poet, as agreed upon in each individual case.
• The Science Fiction Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks.
• Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original translations of poems) or reprint electronic rights are being sought.

Who can submit?

Anyone writing speculative poetry.

What is Speculative Poetry?

Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.

A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable all forms of speculative poetry.

Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagersanthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):

timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1.html

timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2.html

What Is the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA)?

As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”

See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining.

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Interested in editing an issue of Eye to the Telescope? See the Editors’ Guidelines for information and requirements.

Via: Eye to the Telescope.