Deadline: December 15th, 2023
Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25
Theme: Speculative Poems related to Death

Eye to the Telescope 51, Death, will be edited by Robin Wyatt Dunn.

This bourn, boundary stone, from where no traveler—

Die is said to be a borrowed word in English, used out of “superstitious dread.” Douglas Harper tells us the Dutch euphemism is “to give the pipe to Maarten.”

He will not give it back.

These pipe dreams, doors and canyons into which we dive, some willingly, some not, some with trepidation, some with relief, are less final than they appear:

For our Neil Gaiman she was second only to Destiny: the one we all share.

A bodiless zone beyond all reach, or earthly cave filled with the standing bodies awaiting some unknowable future.

Give me death, since we cannot have liberty.

Give me death, in all its colors. As a gift it is a strange one, non-returnable, non-exchangeable. As an exile, like other exiles, there are occasional modes of return.

He or she who rules it orbits the human spirit like a malevolent moon, spinning faster:

with a beautiful face.

Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

• Use the form at  to submit.
• Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain).
• Inquiries only to [email protected] with “ETTT” in the subject line.
• Deadline: December 15. The issue will appear on January 15, 2024.

Payment and rights

• Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
• The Science Fiction & Fantasy 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 Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.

Who can submit?

Any human writing speculative poetry. Please no AI-generated works or AI-human collaborations.

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 to 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 Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):

timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/08/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1-definition/

.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/15/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2-history/

What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy 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.

Via: Eye to the Telescope Magazine.