Poet Aubrey Barnes will be curating a community poetry blog as part of his work as the Midwest Writing Center’s fall 2017 Poet-in-Residence.
Complete submission guidelines are below. Submissions accepted through November 25th.
All contributors are invited to read their contributions at Rozz-Tox (2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL) on Thursday, November 30th from 7-10pm. The event will start with an open mic from 7-8pm, followed by the community poetry reading at 8pm.
If you have any questions about the prompt, the blog, and events related to the residency, please email Aubrey Barnes or Ryan Collins at mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org. Thanks!
Call for Submissions – LEAPS OF (POETIC) FAITH
When we are experiencing difficulties in our lives, a commonly heard phrase is used to offer sympathy, or to hearten and encourage us: “have faith”—in institutions, in a higher power, in people who care about us, in ourselves. But what exactly does “having faith” look like? What does it mean to have faith? What, or whom, do we have faith in? What inspires our faith? Have we ever lost faith in someone/something? Is faith recoverable?
For this project, we are asking the community to reflect on the idea of “faith” in a poetic way. Considering what a power concept faith can be, and how widely faith can be interpreted, we are interested in see how individuals define, describe, or enact faith using poetry as a medium.
Poems can be any style. Submissions selected by Aubrey Barnes will appear on the Community Poetry Blog (https://communitypoetry2017.blogspot.com/) on a rolling basis throughout October and November. All contributors are invited to read at a community-wide poetry reading featuring Aubrey Barnes on Thursday, November 30, 8pm at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island (event is free & open to the public, and will be preceded by an open mic at 7pm.
Submission Guidelines:
- No previously published work, please
- Any style, form, etc. is welcome
- You may submit up to two poems
- Submit all poems/etc. in a single file attachments (.doc, .docx, or .rtf only, please!)
- Use a standard font and formatting (Times New Roman, 12 point, single space)
Please email all submissions to Aubrey Barnes at midwestwritingcenter@gmail.com
Please note: since this is published on a specifically formatted blog, we are restricted in our ability to accommodate some experimentations with format/font. If you have questions about the formatting of your work, please contact us at midwestwritingcenter@gmail.com.
Thanks & we look forward to reading your submissions!