American Upheaval: Call for Poetry Submissions
**Closed June 1st, 2017**
Prompt: Literature is inseparable from context: medium, culture, and conflict. Whether that be social media or formal writing, we are always part of a conversation with the world. As writers, we live our lives in the margins, we go beyond a social conversation and create an artistic dialogue. This is the way we process and handle big events in our history, this is the way we change our history; by recognizing what is happening within our environment and putting it in ink. “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster” (Baldwin, 1953). We want to read your work outing the monsters and keeping our eyes open. We want to share your experience with the world as a statement.
Writing reflects the human experience—especially that bound by social and political pressures. We write in hopes to disrupt power dynamics and increase the voice of subalterns (Said, 1979). Onyx Neon seeks submissions of disruptive poetry for a social activist anthology.
The Project: In Fall 2017, Onyx Neon will release a collection of poems under the umbrella of American Upheaval. The world is reacting to a drastic shift in administration—and those reactions are raw, loud, and critical. We want poems that add to the political conversation.
This collection will be edited by Head Editor of Onyx Neon Shorts, Lindsay Deter-Wolf, with Kit Martin.
Submission Instructions: Please submit 1–6 poems. Each poem (including its enjambed stanzas and verse paragraphs, your chosen formatting) should appear on its own page, and the submission itself must exceed no more than six pages in total.
What we pay: Our standard collection rate is a percentage of the final product based on how many poems are in the collection.
What’s the deadline: No poems will be considered after June 1st.
First Print and Electronic Publishing Rights: When your poem is published for the first time, that publisher has taken your work’s First Print Rights. This means that every subsequent publication must list where it was first published. In this case, we also take Electronic Publishing Rights. Other publishers may be uncomfortable publishing your work electronically after it has been printed by Onyx Neon. For all intents and purposes, after your work is published by us it can only be marketed as a reprint, which could limit the number of markets that will accept it thereafter. It is up to you—the author—to decide if publishing your work in print and/or eBook formats and/or on the web (surrendering First Publishing Rights for royalty-based payment) method is what you want to do.
What rights do we get from you? Our contract states that poetry we acquire from you is yours, now and forever. We come from a background of both fiction and open source coding. We do not require exclusivity. We publish the work so long as you allow, and stop publishing it per your preference.
What about works printed elsewhere? (known as a Reprint): If you own the rights and we like it, we will print it. First publishing rights, and Exclusive E-publishing Rights, are not important criteria for Onyx Neon. Good writing and original ideas: these are important.
How to submit: Submissions should be emailed to (shorts)(at)(onyxneon.com). Please put “Poetry Collection—‘your name’—‘collection/poem title’” in the subject line to ensure we see and log it appropriately. Do not attach a cover page or put your name on any of the pages. All contact information must be enclosed in the email. Submit your work in .doc, .docx, .rtf, LaTex, Twine or plain-text format. Do not copy and paste submissions into the body of the email, but please include a summary of your work.
Do you accept multiple submissions? Yes. If you send them all in one email it’s much easier for us to track.
Do you accept simultaneous submissions? We will absolutely consider a poem that you sent to someone else. We would, however, hate to fall in love with your poem and not be able to publish it. Please alert us immediately if you decide to publish your work elsewhere.
Have you read my poems? We reply to everything when we have finished evaluating, and we will let you know if we are going to publish it or not. We hate waiting to hear back from people as much as the next person, so we do not wish that on anyone.
Why are you so slow? We read a lot, and we leave the vault sometimes. But keep in mind, we are reading your work. If you have not heard from us after three months, please feel free to send us an angry email with lots of grumpy emoticons and pictures of cats.
If your work doesn’t fit into our anthology’s scope, it will still be considered for general publication.
Please submit to (shorts)(at)(onyxneon.com).
We look forward to reading your beautiful, original poetry.
Baldwin, James A. “Stranger In The Village.” Harper’s Magazine (10457143) 207.(1953): 42-48. Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. Vintage.
