Take Two: Submissions Guidelines

For this anthology, we are looking for original, unpublished poems on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock—his life, his films, his impact (on you, on the world). His legend.

To that end, here’s what we are specifically seeking.

• Poems should be original and previously unpublished. (Query for reprints.)
• Poems should run no more than fifty lines. (Query for longer.)
• They must feature Hitchcock—his life and/or work—as a central component.
• They can be written in any style (but please see suggestions below).
• They can take any approach to the subject matter; extreme imagery and language are OK, but only if they are essential to the work.

Now, some tips and suggestions for prospective poets.

• No poems which are simply summaries of individual films.
• No poems in which Hitchcock and his work are only tangential—i.e., no poems about how you lost your virginity in the back seat of a Buick at a drive-in while Psycho was on, unless Psycho itself is in some way central to the meaning and impact of the poem.
• Biographically-oriented poems about aspects of Hitchcock’s life are fine, but they must offer insight into whatever event(s) you are portraying.
• Fantasy scenarios are acceptable, but only if the poem in some way makes us think about Hitchcock in a new, deeper way. A poem in which Hitchcock is randomly placed on Mars is unlike to succeed, but a poem in which he, say, speaks to some of his actors in the afterlife might. Fantasy scenarios need to have some sort of psychological or metaphorical resonance.
• A poem which is simply a personal response to Hitchcock’s work is fine, but if it tells us nothing more than, say, that The Birds scared you when you were ten, it’s unlikely to be of use to us. Everyone knows The Birds is scary. Make us think of the film in new ways.
• Keep in mind that while Hitchcock produced a huge list of notable films, many viewers know him best today for a small handful—notably Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds, along with perhaps two or three others. We are likely to receive many poems which center on those particular films. You might consider digging deeper into his filmography for your subject matter.
• Poets thinking of submitting work to this anthology should be familiar with contemporary modes of poetry. Studying recent issues of Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Paris Review, and other leading literary journals is a good place to start. Any significant anthology of the major poets of the past 50 years would also be an excellent resource.
• The dominant mode of poetry today is free verse, and we expect that much of what we publish will take that form. But we are open to more formal styles of poetry.
• If you wish to use rhyme, it needs to be subtle. “June/spoon,” “dance/romance” types of rhymes will almost certainly get a poem rejected. (Also please refrain from rhyming “Hitch” with anything.) For examples of subtle rhyme, again, consult any of the leading verse journals, especially Poetry.
• Light verse is welcome, but please note that “light verse” is not the same thing as flippant or silly verse. Effective light verse is witty, creative, and insightful, with a genuine sense of the language and its rhythms. Writers who wish to submit light verse should be familiar with contemporary masters of the form such as John Updike and Billy Collins. No doggerel, please.
• Prose poems are acceptable—but the term “prose poem” is not a synonym for “short-short story” or “flash fiction.” A prose poem may or may not have a sense of narrative, but it definitely features the same attention to language, rhythm, and imagery as any other poem. Recommended reading: Great American Prose Poems edited by David Lehman; Models of the Universe edited by Friebert and Young.
• In general, while we definitely want work that is subtle and suggestive, poets should strive for clarity. We hope to create an anthology which will appeal not just to poetry readers, but to Hitchcock fans everywhere. As a result, poetry that is deliberately obscure or difficult stands little chance here (T.S. Eliot was a great poet, but please don’t send us your version of “The Waste Land”). The poems we want are written in a way that any intelligent, curious reader can enjoy them—including readers who don’t normally read poetry. Contemporary poets in this mode you might consider familiarizing yourself with (and ones we happen to like) include Donald Hall, Robert Bly, Rita Dove, Adrienne Rich, C.K. Williams, Ai, Sharon Olds, William Heyen, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Jack Gilbert.
  

Reading Period:

• We welcome submissions from writers beginning September 1st, 2009. Please do not submit before September 1st; any submissions received before then will be deleted, unread.
• The submission period ends February 28th, 2010.

Submissions Specifics:

• Submit one poem only. We’ll contact you if we wish to see more. Your poem must not run more than 50 lines. Do not submit multiple short poems totaling fewer than 50 lines, submit ONE POEM ONLY.
• Payment is the established HWA professional rate of $0.25 (twenty-five cents) cents per line, with a $5 minimum.
• Please include a brief message in the body of your e-mail. We want to know who you are! If you have previous publication credits, tell us about them (it’s okay if you don’t—new writers are welcome). If you have any particular background in poetry or Hitchcock studies which you think is relevant, tell us about that. But please keep your message BRIEF—limit yourself to one paragraph or so.
• Send submissions to DSPSubmissions(at)AOL(dot)com.

Formatting Requirements:

• Send as Word attachments only – do not send submissions in the body of an email or as any other type of attachment;
• Use Times-New Roman, 12-point font;
• Single-space your poem. Indicate a stanza break with a blank line. If a stanza break happens to coincide with the bottom of a page, type [stanza break] in the appropriate place;
• Use 1-inch margins — this includes top, bottom, left and right;
• Film titles within poems are to be italicized — do not use all caps or bold;
• Working title of poem center on first page — do not use italics or all caps, no quotations;
• No headers or footers;
• No page numbers;
• At the top of the first page in the left-hand corner, single-spaced, please include the following information:
  

  Name
  Street Address
  City, State, Zip Code
  Email Address
  Line Count
  (body of submission, excluding title)

Notification of Writers:

• Email confirmations will be sent upon submission. If you do not receive a confirmation that your submission has been received after two weeks, first check your Spam folder and then drop us a line. We’ve also taken the time to create this project-specific blog in an effort to communicate with writers. Please bookmark the page and check back for updates on where we stand with submissions.
• Expect to hear back on your submission between 60 and 90 days from the date of confirmation. Poems will be either accepted or rejected outright, or we may ask to hold a poem until the end of our reading period. We realize that six months is a long period to ask to hold onto a particular poem, but because of the nature of this project we anticipate high interest and multiple submissions in various areas of Hitchcock's life and work. At DSP, we realize that a writer’s time is money. If you receive an email from us asking to hold onto your submission until the end of the process and don’t want to tie up your work that long, simply let us know and we’ll take the piece out of consideration and release it back to you with our best wishes.

Questions:

• Questions? Hopefully, we’ve covered all bases with these guidelines. If not and there is a pressing need for information, you may contact us at darkscribepress(at)aol(dot)com. Due to time constraints, it may not be possible to answer questions individually. We will, however, compile questions and answer them here on the blog. Bookmark and check back often.
• Please do not email us asking if a particular film or specific aspect of Hitchcock’s life has already been covered; these emails will not be answered.

Publication Date: August 2010 (subject to change)