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Taking Submissions: Giant Robot Poems

Middle West Press

Deadline: December 4th, 2023 Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: War Poems about Emerging & Future Tech Middle West Press LLC, an independent micro-publisher of military-themed and -adjacent literary projects, has issued a call for human-generated poems engaging with  “Giant Robot” technology themes. This is a "speculative poetry" market.   What is a "Giant Robot" theme? For this project, the term "Giant Robots" can include examples of technologies in timelines both real and imagined, and of any size or (even formless) form. Living Ships. Loitering Drones. Taxi-cab AI. Robot Tanks. Virtual Soldiers. Space Explorers. Mecha-suits. In short, any vessel for exploring themes of human-electro-mechanical-cyber interaction, connection, and competition. The working title of this project is Giant Robot Poems: Poetry About Mecha-Human Science, Culture & War. Editors of the project write: Our intent with this project is to have fun, but also to illuminate, interrogate, and challenge (via the still-human domain of poetry!!!) the ways people think about emerging and future technologies such as robots and drones, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybernetic enhancements, etc. We are looking for terrain-shifting, mind's-eye-bending, firmament-rending expressions of new and future realities. Be provocative. Be poignant. Be human. Even if you write like a Giant Robot. Ideally, many of the works submitted will engage such questions as: How does technology potentially change human behavior / culture / society? How does technology potentially change human behavior ethics / values? How does technology potentially change the ways humans fight / love / think / feel? Many examples of "Giant Robot-ness" exist in today's news and culture. As a starting point or prompt, our editors offer a list of examples and inspirations. In creating and crafting their own, original concepts and works, poets might consider various modes of commenting, observing, or even inhabiting technologies, mythologies, or stories depicted in these and other...