New Online Quarterly

 

The Pickled Body  is a new online poetry magazine.
The theme for issue one is The Red Shoes.

 The call out alone is inspiring  - here's what they have to say....

 

 

'We love Kate Bush’s 1993 album The Red Shoes, inspired by a film we adore, Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece – itself inspired by Andersen’s timeless fairytale. Among other things, The Red Shoes explores the conflict between dedicating your life to art and allowing the quotidian world to stop the dance.

 

So we want poems that possess or are possessed. Poems that move, that ache, that vibrate with the same energy as the Powell and Pressburger film or the music of Kate Bush. Poems that ask “have you ever seen a picture of Jesus laughing” (Why Should I Love You?); that say “it’s all right, I’ll come round when you’re not in” (You’re the One); that whisper: “just being alive, it can really hurt” (Moments of Pleasure); that “split me open with devotion” (Eat the Music). Poems that sing powerfully with the fire in your own life when you create, and you find those shoes impossible to take off.

 

You write because you must – but at what cost? Show us what possesses you. Send up to three of your best to thepickledbody@gmail.com by September 30th. As for wearing red shoes while composing – we’d particularly like to receive poems written while wearing nothing else.'

 

 

The Stony Thursday Book...

Wants Your Poems:

'One of the longest running literary journals in Ireland' celebrates its 38th Anniversary Edition this year. The editor is Paddy Bushe.

Submissions in both English and Irish are welcome.

Write your name and address on each page & send no more than 6 poems to: The Stony Thursday Book, The Arts Office, Limerick City Council, Merchant's Quay, Limerick. Or email: artsoffice@limerickcity.ie

The deadline for submissions is Friday 16th August 2013.

Popshot

For an opportunity to have your poems published AND illustrated...this biannual UK based magazine is currently open for submissions. Here's what they have to say...

Each issue of Popshot contains a collection of poems written to a theme. These selected poems are individually sent out to a collection of illustrators who illustrate the poems according to their interpretation of the piece. These illustrations are then bound together with the poems to create a beautiful volume of literary and artistic goodness.
Guidelines: Poems must be 25 lines or less and written to the theme (Power). Send no more than 3 poems. We look for original, succinct, and thought provoking poetry - the kind that will allow our readers to see the subject in a way that they may not have otherwise considered. Poems with a focus on rhythm, repetition and pattern are preferred but this definitely doesn't mean obscure free verse is overlooked. Please include a paragraph or two about yourself, a short description of the poem, why you came to write it, and what it means to you.
Deadline: January 25th 2012 For more info click HERE

Other up coming deadlines include The Ballymaloe Poetry Prize and the Doire Poetry & Fiction Chapbook Competition, and of course, there's something else... something that doesn't involve writing... nah, it's gone. Can't of been that important:)

Launch Of Moth Editions Series

A new venture for one of the most delicious of literary magazines. The Moth Series will be launched this Friday 7th October ( in the Moth office, Second Floor Studios, The Former See House, Kilmore, Cavan) There will be readings from 7.30 onwards. It should be a great night. All are welcome, so if you're lucky enough to be nearby, do drop in :)

The aim of the series is to present new work by up and coming writers and selected work from already established writers from Ireland and abroad. The first four titles in the series are Some Poems by Kate Dempsey , Dermot Healy, Ted McCarthy and Ciarán O’Rourke. Kate is also the author of the Emerging Writer Blog, where she provides, for free, and daily, the most comprehensive and consistent updates on writing opportunities, competitions, magazines, publications, you name it...anything you need to know, that's the place to go.

'They are dinky little books you can slip into your back pocket or handbag. 10cm high and 32 pages long.'

Beautifully put together. And a bargain at 4 Euro each inc P&P. You can order them online here.
Who wouldn't love one? Or four?

Boyne Berries 10

A poem of mine, 'My Lad', is to be included in 'Boyne Berries'!

The magazine is a journal of poetry and prose, published twice a year (March and September) by the Boyne Writers Group. It's edited by intrepid poet, historian, actor and blogger Michael Farry. This special tenth issue will be launched twice, yes, Twice! - at the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim on Thursday 29 September at 8pm and at Charlie Byrnes Bookshop, Galway, on Friday 30 September 6pm. I hope to get to one of them, here's to hope:)

I recently found a series of online poetry workshops by Jane Holland in Mslexia, that are really worth checking out, they made me realise I often became (unnecessarily?) attached to elements in a first draft, to quote -

"... There is no such thing as the sacrosanct first draft, which must under no circumstances be changed, for fear of losing something precious and irrecoverable. Writing is a process, and during that process any number of decisions, conscious or otherwise, are made before a single word is written. There’s no mystery about this. Your initial choices may be instinctive, but they are washed through filters of arrogance, influence, self-censorship, experience, fear, understanding, partiality…the list goes on. "

Is nothing sacred!?