POEMS/PSALMS - ROCHFORD STREET

Mark Roberts of Rochford Street Review

Rochford Street Review has very kindly published the full speech presented by Sarah St Vincent Welch during her Calcutta/Kolkata style launch of my Bitumen Psalms at The Shop Gallery in Glebe. This was part of the Flying Islands 2025 group launch event. Hazel Hall's review will appear over the next week or two. Greatly appreciated.

Rochford Street Review is a wonderful selection of reviews, poems, essays, interviews and visual arts. The striking print After the Fires 3 in the latest issue is by featured artist Gary Shinfield. You should follow. 

Have I mentioned I’ll be reading with Ali Whitelock at Smith’s on Monday, June 9? It’s a 7 pm start and includes a great open mike. More here.

Photo: Mark Roberts, editor, is pictured at the 2025 Flying Islands event in 

The Shop Gallery, Glebe. That all happened amongst art by Brian Purcell.

ZINE FEATURED IN AXON JOURNAL

I’m so pleased to have an e-zine published in the Axon: Creative Explorations — Text/Page/Art issue edited by Caren Florance. It’s just a 12 pager talking briefly about my creative process involving collage and found text, and responses in poetry followed by responses through small paint on canvas works. It features a series of the latter. Hope you like some of them.

Climbing Back up your Own Silk Screen is one of five downloadable zines. There are also essays, photo and visual essays, essay-poems, stories, poetry, memoir and images by about thirty writers and artists. Go there.

[Breaking in a new iPad so no images yet and some dubious editing.]

POETRY CALLS — BE QUICK!

 

Some poetry submission opportunities:

March 5

Quick! The fabulous Cordite Poetry Review's current submission call is for Cordite 109: No Theme 12, with guest editors Caitlin Maling and Nadia Rhook. Closes 11.59 pm Melbourne time, March 5.

April 28

Rabbit: A Journal of Nonfiction Poetry — always fascinating — is calling for submissions on the theme of Archive: 'How can we, as poets, return to the archive and reanimate voices and lives silenced through time and the resolve of official record-makers?' Closes April 28. Check the guidelines here and consider this: 'Name a poem that you like that draws on/relates to archival research/thinking and why you like it.' That's got you thinking! Send brief response with your poems and bio. Guest editors are Anne Casey and Jason Wee.

Open

Go to https://www.poetryfoundation.org for information on submitting to the Poetry Foundation's Poetry Magazine. Submissions seem to be open. Poetry has been running for 110 years. The Poetry Foundation also publishes essays, interviews, profiles and podcasts on its website.

Palette Poetry is open all year. Guidelines here: https://www.palettepoetry.com/submit/ Palette says: 'The world is eager for poets. In 2016, more people spent their hard-earned money on poetry books than in any other year on record.' Good news — I'd love to know more about those stats ... 

Photo: Ask a Rabbit by Lizz Murphy 

(acrylic and found text, 10 x 10 cm); private collection of Brad Scowcroft; 

from the solo exhibition Piece of Place 2022 with thanks 

to the Rabbit journal for the text (found in their Contents pages)

NOSTALGIA COMES IN BLACK & WHITE

 

Abridged is an exquisitely produced poetry and art magazine available in print and online. The poetry and visual work is so splendid that their launches often feature exhibitions of the visual work. Submissions are currently open and the theme is TERMINUS. Closing date: March 10. (I'm assuming it's still open to international contributors.)

The theme outlines are a delight in themselves: When the end feels all too near, the old lines, walls and boundaries ...  ... Nostalgia comes in black and white. Just some of many possibilities and prompts should you need them.

This issue is a collaboration with the Belfast Photo Festival. Submit your photos for exhibition, publication (Abridged) and cash prize opportunities.

Abridged is supported by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Image: detail of charcoal drawing by Lizz Murphy

RABBIT POETRY REVIEW

I am so delighted with the reviews of The Wear of my Face. The latest is in Issue 35 — Architecture of that fabulous publication Rabbit: A Journal of Nonfiction Poetry. Why the Architecture issue? Well for one thing the first poem is called The Architecture of Pear. Reviewer Dominique Hecq suggests this poem announces the texture, structural design and method of the collection. Is true. Dominique also says the writing is earthy, seductive and sophisticated … So generous. Very grateful to Dominique Hecq and Rabbit.

MAY DAY MAY DAY POETRY CALL OUT

 

If you’re writing about Antartica here’s a new opportunity to be published. Send up to four poems (of up to two pages each) to Griffith Review 77: Real Cool World (published in partnership with the Australian Antarctic Division) by May 13, 2022. Real Cool World will explore Antarctica as a place and as a canvas for imagination. This vast, dry continent drives much of the Earth’s weather, part litmus test for change at the world’s extremities and part canary in the coalmine...

Island Magazine — premium literary magazine of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and arts features — open to submissions from Australian and New Zealand writers until May 15. Island pays a fee of $125 (less cost of Island subscription if not currently subscribed). The current issue includes the winning entries of this year’s Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. 

The Australian Centre for Leadership for Women (ACLW) is calling for prose and poetry submissions for a fund-raising anthology titled Prose and Poems for Ukraine by Women of the World. Deadline: May 22. 

Rabbit is currently accepting submissions of nonfiction poetry for Issue 36: the ART Issue. Think not: what does 'non-fiction' do to poetry; think: what can poetry (+ art) do to non-fiction? What do poetry and art bring to one another? How does one open and enlarge the field of the other? How do they enliven the 'real world'? More information here. Deadline: May 31.

Photo: Mini snowman by granddaughter Ruby (Belfast, January 2022)

POETRY OPPORTUNITIES

 

MYSLEXIA

Myslexia is a UK magazine for women who write. It publishes feature stories by well-known women writers and poetry and fiction by new and established. Submissions closing October 11 (I think) include: 

 

Eyeverse — a short poem of up to four lines on any subject, plus an original illustration related to the poem. 

 

Poems for the Planet — poems up to 40 lines. Theme for the next issue is 'Birds.' Judged by Climate Writer Linda France. NB This one is for subscribers only. 

 

Poet Laureate — poems up to 14 lines on news items and issues of topical importance. They’re interested in local news as much as world news. Include a link to your topic or news item of choice if possible. 

 

The next Showcase theme is to be announced — submissions will open in December. Meanwhile their Women’s Poetry Prize closes on December 6. First prize 2000 quid with 2nd and 3rd prizes. Poems can be any length.  

 

 

QUARTET

Quartet is a quarterly poetry journal featuring work by women over fifty. Send three poems between October 8 and November 8 to be considered for the next issue.They say: 'We want to read poems that tackle difficult themes, that bend or honor traditional forms, that surprise and illuminate, that are genuine, that have momentum and play with language.'