Call For Submissions: Poetry Wales 59.3: Home in a Time of Ecological Emergency

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Call for Submissions

For our Spring 2024 issue of Poetry Wales 59.3, we will be joined by two Contributing Editors: Welsh writer Taylor Edmonds (who was previously a Contributing Editor for Poetry Wales 58.2) and Obsidian Foundation alumni Tangie Mitchell.

Taylor is an excellent Welsh writer with a great first pamphlet out and who was involved in setting up Where I’m Coming From, a poetry reading event for Welsh writers of the global majority in Cardiff, Wales’ capital city. She just had a chapbook out with Broken Sleep.

Tangela is an Obsidian Foundation alumni and a great US-based poet, editor, and collage artist, who is working on Black American girlhood as a vehicle to discuss (and complicate) notions of citizenship, Americanness, tradition, and belonging.

Poetry Wales is always open to all, but for this call, we want to prioritise writers of the global majority

For 59.3, as always, we are open to all submissions on all themes. However, we would be particularly pleased to see work that considers what home means in a time of ecological emergency. ‘Home’ could be framed in terms of the ecological, but also in relation to the national, ancestral, spiritual, physical and emotional

It is no accident that this homeplace, as fragile and as transitional as it may be, a makeshift shed, a small bit of earth where one rests, is always subject to violation and destruction. For when a people no longer have the space to construct homeplace, we cannot build a meaningful community of resistance. bell hooks (2014). “Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics”

We welcome your own interpretations of the theme, but for some inspiration, you may want to consider the following questions:

  • How does home relate to the natural world, and what does the future of this look like with the impact of the ecological crisis?
  • In a time of environmental destruction, how do we connect to the home(s) of our ancestors, and how will this live on in future generations?
  • What does home mean to you beyond the physical? How does home manifest spiritually and emotionally? How do these nonphysical “homeplaces” act as balms in a time of such ecological, financial, and political uncertainty?”

Submissions will be open from Friday 1st September to Friday 29th September

How to Submit

We accept submissions by email, post, and Submittable. All submissions are free.

  • Our preferred method of submission is Submittable, click on the button below

Poetry Wales Submittable

  • If Submittable is inaccessible to you, please submit via Email, read the full submissions guide above then send your covering letter and poems to poetrywalessubmissions@gmail.com 
  • To submit via Post, read the full submissions guide above then send your covering letter and poems to:

Spring 2023 Submissions Poetry Wales Suite 6 4 Derwen Road Bridgend CF31 1LH UNITED KINGDOM

Submissions Guidelines

For reference, please find a detailed submission guide here

  • Please send no more than four poems, in Word doc. format
  •  We do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, in print or online
  • Please try not to send simultaneous submissions. If you have submitted simultaneously and your poem has been accepted elsewhere, please let us know ASAP by emailing poetrywalessubmissions@gmail.com
  • Please include a cover letter including a 50 word bio

For more advice on submitting work, to us or in general, check out our Resources for Writers