Taking Submissions: Eye to the Telescope #57
Deadline: June 15th, 2025
Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25
Theme: Speculative poems about Birds
Eye to the Telescope 57, Birds, will be edited by Maria Schrater.
Send your speculative bird poems! The endless diversity of birds is one of the great marvels of our world. Migration patterns, flight mechanics, song, life cycle, and more—it’s a diverse pool to draw from, with deeper potential with the addition of speculative layers.
Guest Editor Maria Schrater has been fascinated by birds since she was a child, learning to imitate their calls and identify local species just by a flash of color. She has rescued baby birds, carefully viewed delicate nests, and watched majestic waterfowl take flight. Apparition readers may remember that Schrater adores out-of-the-box forms. You could even send a poem shaped as a bird. If you pick a traditional form, please name the form in the cover letter so it can be evaluated with that in mind.
A generous interpretation will be applied to the definition of bird, but this call is not intended to include dinosaurs unless modern birds are also discussed. We are excited to see your poems!
Submission Guidelines
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
- Use the form at https://bit.ly/SFPAettt57 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- Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio.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: June 15. The issue will appear on July 15, 2025.
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 Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.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. Note SFPA’s new AI policy: https://sfpoetry.com/ai-statement.html
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.
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Interested in editing an issue of Eye to the Telescope? See the Editors’ Guidelines for information and requirements.
