tongues of the ocean: accepting submissions for the inaugural issue

tongues of the ocean is a brand-new online literary journal of Bahamian, Caribbean and related poetry which is currently accepting submissions for the inaugural issue.

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2009

Poems: Send 3-6 original poems and a bio of no more than 50 words to submitpoetry@tonguesoftheocean.org.

No attachments, please. Paste the poems and the bio into the body of your email. If your poem requires special formatting, let us know that. If we like your work enough to consider it, we may ask you to send an attachment.

Spoken Word: Send one poem in MP3 format as an attachment to an email to submitword@tonguesoftheocean.org. The email should include a bio of no more than 50 words.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Let us know the minute your work is accepted elsewhere.

Poems posted on blogs or online workshops are welcome, especially if they benefitted from their earlier showing.

Previously published poems may be considered, provided you let us know where and when they were published.

Submissions for entry page art: Send photographs or artwork in JPG format and a bio of no more than 50 words to coverart@tonguesoftheocean.org. This is for web publication, so the art need not be at full resolution to submit. If we need a higher resolution for any reason, we may ask you to send it as an attachment.

Here’s some of the stuff we’ll be including in tongues:

writers on writers - writers talk about the work of another writer. Like a review, only hotter. Bahamians & residents only, to begin with, but we’ll get friendlier as we go on. We’d like to start with a focus on Bahamian and Caribbean greats.

bredren and sistren - section for Caribbean and Southern US writers, for West Africans - for our siblings and cousins in the diaspora, and for our spiritual kin around the world. We reserve the right.

catch a fire - in every issue we’ll include a section inspired by word prompts, which we’ll post with the call for submissions. For now, this is the only place we’ll accept fiction, and only flash fiction (for our purposes, fiction under 500 words). Prose poems are welcome. Transgress boundaries. Push.

catch a fire issue 1 prompts: finesse, liquid, cedar, hunger, float

What we’re looking for: Poems that excite. Poems that move us, that make us laugh, or cry, or stop and say wow. Poems that present familiar things in a fresh way, that make old packages new. Poems that suggest you have some passing acquaintance with the greats of our region, or with the greats of the world. Poems that dance. Poems that sing. Poems that test the boundaries of our language, and poems that show its beauty. Poems that make us think; poems that make us go ooh.

What we don’t want: Stuff we’ve seen before, in countless different forms, that doesn’t bring anything new to the page. Stuff that was done better by e. e. cummings, T. S. Eliot, Susan Wallace, Maya Angelou, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, or Gwendolyn Brooks. Stuff that really should have stayed on the pages of your journal. Stuff that isn’t ready. Stuff that makes us go eeuw.

Our region is a region of wonder, of celebration. It’s the region of Lord Kitchener and the Mighty Sparrow and Mikey Smith, of Kamau Brathwaite and Lorna Goodison and Derek Walcott. Our writers wrestle with the languages they inherit: European flesh on African bones. Our world surprises us with its vitality. Seeds tossed on our soils grow into big trees. We want your best trees.

We look forward to reading and hearing your work!

Editor-in-chief: Nicolette Bethel

Spoken Word Editor: Nadine Thomas-Brown

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