Deadline: September 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 22, the Ghosts issue, will be edited by Shannon Connor Winward.

Existence is a circle, and we err
when we assign to it for measurement
the limits of the cradle and the grave.

—Manuel Acuña, “Before a Corpse”

For this issue of Eye to the Telescope, I am looking for more than thumps in the attic and pretty dead girls on a moonlit road. I want the unexpected, the unmeasured—I want poems that belie the limits of life and afterlife and what we think a ghost story should be. Give me phantoms and poltergeists, yes, bean-sidhe and È Guǐ, pathos or parody, space ship specters or transmigrating alien souls—I want any and all of it, as long the poem has meat on its bones. No restrictions on genre or form, though graphic violence or gore will be a hard sell. More than anything, I want to be moved.

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: September 15, 2016. The issue will appear on October 15, 2016.

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.