Size limit: short. The managing editor is short in both stature and temper and she doesn’t like poems that are longer than herself – (at last count she averaged 499 words.)
Submit only three poems at any time and wait to hear about at least one of those before sending another (if only to find out what we hate).
General guidelines to keep in mind before submitting your work:
* If it sounds stale and clichéd, like a greetings card we’re not going to eat it.
* Speaking of fresh, we like our haiku with a twist (we’re – twisted like that).
* Have a point. If you don’t have a point then it’s pointless us reading your poem.
* We’re not interested in pop, hip-hop, acid house, love letters to your girlfriend/boyfriend or sermons.
*If your work contains words such as “alas” and “iridescent” it will probably be considered a little too iridescent for us – alas.
* We do give feedback but we’re not a workshop forum so – if it’s just feedback you want join one.
* If you send us a rude e-mail post rejection, not only have you let yourself down but we’ll just press the Ban This User button. (I love that button – don’t tempt me.)
* If you’re going to use rhythm and rhyme, please have some idea why you’re using it and why it’s relevant to the poem because we just might ask.
* Poems that don’t make it generally don’t make it within 14 days so if you want to get your work rejected quickly, here are a few ways:
a. Use a lot of unnecessary formatting, like bold, italics, parenthesises and ellipses – just for fun.
b. Use some exotic or esoteric fonts and colour them purple. Our system prefers TNR point 12 but hey – you can do your own thing right? Rules is made to be broke…
c. Make your work aesthetically unpleasing, downright obnoxious or unsuitable for a general audience of people, some of whom may be having their lunch.
d. Be sexist or racist.
e. Over alliterate, use plenty of gerunds, lots of conjunctions and adjectives.
f. Cut up some random writing, throw it in the air and reassemble it without thought.
g. Send poems that have been published two or three times and are readily available on your blog.
h. Call yourself Santa and give your address as The North Pole.
E A S Y !
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6 Responses to “Editor’s View: New Year, New Guidelines • Disambiguated by Oonah V. Joslin”
Comments
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January 5th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Do you really get gross-out submissions? Do you get a lot of angsty adolescent suicide poetry?
January 5th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Most excellent, Oonah!
January 6th, 2012 at 9:38 am
A timely reminder as I sumit more to you
January 6th, 2012 at 9:39 am
or, even, ‘submit’ – reminder to self to proof-read before hitting that send key.
January 6th, 2012 at 10:10 am
Glad people are having fun with this one! And, yes, our submissions cover quite a lot of territory…..
January 27th, 2012 at 2:03 am
[...] More about Oonah at Oonahverse and her viewpoint at Every Day Poets. [...]