The Poetry Issue: Future Myths – Call for Submissions

Syntax & Salt Magazine is thrilled to announce that it will publish its first poetry feature issue, Future Myths in October 2018, with special guest editors and contributing staff members, Elizabeth Archer and D.A. Gray.

The Editors:

Elizabeth Archer had it made as a National Merit Scholar, but sadly her only ambition was to write. After editing her high school literary magazine, she was doomed to pursue an English degree.  She has published over seventy stories and poems, and made enough money to buy some  beautiful yarn to knit a shawl. She is currently trying to put together a decent chapbook, and reading slush for several magazines. As Eliza Archer, she frequently lurks around the writing website, Scribophile. Elizabeth lives in Texas, where she collects cats and tries to save Chihuahuas from kill shelters.

D.A. Gray’s poetry collection, Contested Terrain, was just released by FutureCycle Press.  Gray is the author of one previous collection, Overwatch, Grey Sparrow Press, 2011.  His work has appeared in The Sewanee Review, Appalachian Heritage, Syntax & Salt, The Good Men Project, O’Dark Thirty, and War, Literature and the Arts among many other journals.  Gray holds an MFA from The Sewanee School of Letters and an MS in Liberal Studies from Texas A&M-Central Texas. A retired soldier and veteran, the author writes and lives in Central Texas with his wife, Gwendolyn.

What We’re Looking for:

As with the short fiction we publish, we are looking for strong story that stretches the imagination. Tight lines and crisp language, vivid images and action, stories that take place at the intersection of myth, traditional tales, history, strong personae and look into the future. We are partial to lines that look at the world outside the window and imagine new ways to describe it, and new ways to address it without becoming didactic. We’ve included a few titles below to give you a sense of the pieces we treasure, and perhaps to inspire you to writing. Our theme for this issue will be ‘Future Myths.’

Suggested Reading:

• Traci Brimhall ‘Our Bodies Break Light’
• Arthur Rimbaud ‘The Drunken Boat’
• Audre Lorde ‘A Woman Speaks’
• Anna Akhmatova ‘Lot’s Wife’
• Amal El-Mohtar ‘The Maenad to Her Artist Friend’

The Rules and Legal Stuff:

We cannot wait to see what marvels you send us, and we hope to see longer forms, and require that speculative elements be present in each poem. You may submit up to three poems in one submission, and may only submit once.

• Submit via this submittable link, by September 1, 2018.
• Thanks to a generous private donation, we will be paying $100US per selected published poem, via PayPal.
• Syntax & Salt supports and welcomes stories by and about individuals of all ages, classes, disabilities, ethnicities, genders, nationalities, races, religions, and sexual orientations.
• Syntax & Salt purchases first worldwide English-language serial and electronic rights. Each poem we purchase will be published on syntaxandsalt.com in an electronic quarterly issue. Each poem we purchase may be included in print or electronic anthology collections. You must notify us in writing if you do not wish to be included in these collections. We may also excerpt stories  for promotional purposes. The author retains all other rights.