Retro woman behind steering wheel
Most of us have a story (or stories) about how/when/where/why we learned to drive. We want to hear about your experiences as a neophyte driver in a poem or story (fiction or nonfiction), and invite you to submit your work to our LEARNING TO DRIVE Poetry and Prose Series. (Non-drivers can also participate by explaining why they’ve never learned to operate a vehicle.)

PROMPT: Tell us about learning to drive in a poem (any reasonable length) or prose piece (300 words or fewer). If you’ve never learned to drive, tell us why in poetry or prose.

WHAT: Submissions can be original or previously published poems or prose. You retain all rights to your work and give Silver Birch Press permission to publish the piece on social media and in a potential print edition.

WHEN: We’ll feature the poems and prose in the Silver Birch Press LEARNING TO DRIVE Poetry and Prose Series on our blog starting in March 2016 . We’ll also feature the work on Twitter and Facebook.

HOW TO SUBMIT: Email one poem or prose piece to SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com as an MSWord attachment — and in the same file include your name, contact info (including email address), one-paragraph author’s bio (written in third person), and any notes about your creative process or thoughts about your piece. Please put all this information in one MSWord document and title the file with your last name (and only your last name). Write “Drive” in subject line of email. If available, please send a photo of yourself around the time you learned to drive and provide a caption for the photo (when, where). Photos with cars encouraged!

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

To help everyone understand our submission requirements, we’ve prepared the following checklist.

1. Send ONE MS Word document TITLED WITH YOUR LAST NAME (e.g. Smith.doc or Jones.docx).

2. In the same MS Word document, include your contact information (name, mailing address, email address).

3. In the same MS Word document, include an author’s bio, written in the third person (e.g., Mary Jones lives in Ohio…”).

4. In the same MS Word document, include a note about your poem/prose or creative process (this is optional — but encouraged).

5. In the same MS Word document, include a caption for your photo (including where, when and/or date taken).

6. If available, send a photo of yourself at any age as a SEPARATE jpg attachment (not in the MS Word document). Title the photo with your last name (e.g., Jones.jpg).

7. Email to SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com — and put DRIVE in the subject line.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Tuesday, March 15, 2016.