Submissions

Radius considers unsolicited submissions of poetry and critical prose that have not been previously published, but our needs are fairly specific, so please read the submission guidelines below, and indicate which area your submission is meant for (poetry or non-fiction) in the field marked “title.”

To submit, please visit our submission manager, built and maintained by the nice people at Submishmash. We do not accept simultaneous submissions, or emailed submissions unless directly solicited. We know you feel you can disregard that last sentence, but be warned: It annoys the editor, and he holds grudges.

Please send all submissions in one file, and if rejected, please wait two months before submitting again unless specifically entreated otherwise by the editors. Please send no more than five poems, or one piece of prose. Also, please only give us one submission at a time.

We try to respond to all submissions promptly, but we have a small staff of very busy people, and consequently, we often fall behind, so please be patient. The upswing, though, is that the delays help us hone in on poems that have some longevity, as opposed to immediate impact. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

If we accept a poem, story or essay that doesn’t have a bio, we reserve the right to tell bald-faced lies about the contributor, including but not limited to taking a page from the old (much-missed) poetry journal Blue Satellite and concluding that the contributor is the international criminal mastermind, Keyser Söze. That is all. If you have any questions, please email the editors at admin@radiuslit.org.

POETRY:

Radius only publishes unsolicited poetry in very specialized areas.

ELEGIES FOR POETS: Poems that reflect the loss of a poet who’s passed on, especially poems that make the reader feel the force of that poet’s absence.

POLITICAL POEMS: A legacy from The November 3rd Club. We’re looking for poems that reflect politics in its broadest form and rise above simple rhetoric, poems that humanize otherwise overwhelming issues, and that touch upon the currents that come when six-billion diverse people attempt to share a planet.

INVENTED FORMS: Poetic forms which, arguably, have never existed before. Please include instructions.

NON-FICTION:

We’re looking for a balancing act, here. Prose needs to be vibrant and energetic, hyperliterate and smart, and most importantly, accessible. Wit and humor are fine and even encouraged, but not at the cost of the artificial self-effacement that pervades a goodly number of online literary blogs and journals, and needless snark is discouraged. An overall measure of respect – even in the face of disagreement and distaste – is an absolute must.

MEMOIRS OF READINGS: Recollections of live poetry events which greatly influenced or affected the author, done in memoir style, with as much detail as possible as to recreate the experience for the reader. The readings don’t have to be recent, and indeed, it’s desirable for poets to reach deep into their memories to pull out recollections of readings which otherwise might be lost.

CRITIQUES OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY: Reviews of contemporary books, e-books, journals and recordings of poetry, with an emphasis on how and why they work (or, in some cases, do not work.) We’re less interested in whether they are “good” or “bad,” so much as what the work does, how it does it, and how it connects to an audience or to the culture. As with everything in Radius, the writing should be lively and accessible. While we want the writing to be smart, clogging the review with overly dense language is discouraged. If you are interested in writing reviews for Radius, please contact the editors at admin@RadiusLit.org before submitting.

CONTEMPORARY POETRY THEORY: Short essays on poetry theory, with an emphasis on how poetry connects to the culture at large.

THE POETICS OF HIP-HOP: The goal with this feature is to draw direct lines between rap, particularly classic rap albums, and contemporary poetry, through earnest critique devoid of both condescension and hype. Whether rap can be construed as poetry seems almost a dated argument at this point, and indeed, it seems clear that rap and hip-hop culture have had a tremendous effect on contemporary poetry. What’s more important, for our purposes, is illustrating that connection.

MEDITATIONS ON POETRY AND OTHER ART FORMS: As with rap, there are strong connections between poetry and other art forms – either from collaboration or influence – from song lyrics to visual art and film. We’re interested in explorations of those connections in either critique or memoir form.

HEROES: Some of the earliest examples of poetry are epic poems describing the exploits of larger-than-life heroes. The world of poetry has changed, and the larger-than-life hero has moved on to fiction, comic books and movies. But are there still strands that connect our classic demigods and contemporary superheroes to contemporary poetry? we’re very interested in these connective strands, and the metaphors and symbols beneath them.

BURIED TREASURES: This is a particular brand of review, focusing on works that have been nearly entirely lost to obscurity: chapbooks of poetry that barely exist anymore, old spoken word cassettes, books published on micropresses that are well out of print, things that are entirely in danger of disappearing, but which the critic strongly believes shouldn’t.

COUNTERPOINT: Reactions to discussions of poetry in other periodicals, blogs and journals.

FICTION:

We are no longer accepting submissions for fiction.

 

2 thoughts on “Submissions

  1. admin says:

    Perhaps, but it would be better if you approached us backchannel.

  2. admin says:

    I think it would all depend on the story, at that point. We have no objection to sex, in general, so long as it’s part of the story.

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