For the time being, many of us are required to wear a mask in public — or we choose to wear one for safety. Over the years, most of us have worn a variety of masks, in the literal or figurative sense. Let’s write about our experiences in the WEARING A MASK Poetry & Prose Series.
PROMPT: Tell us about wearing a mask (in the literal or figurative sense) in a poem (any reasonable length) or prose piece (300 words or fewer — this word limit also applies to prose poems).
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. We are a nonprofit blog and offer no monetary compensation to contributors. If your piece was previously published, please tell us where/when so we can credit the original publisher.
WHEN: We’ve already received a range of contributions, and on Thursday, May 21, 2020, will begin to feature the poems and prose in the Silver Birch Press WEARING A MASK Poetry and Prose Series on our blog.
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, 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. Write “MASK” in the subject line of the email. Please send a photo of yourself in a mask of any variety — or a photo of a mask you’ve worn. Send the photos as separate jpg attachments.
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, email address).
3. In the same MS Word document, include a one-paragraph author’s bio, written in the third person. You are encouraged to include links to your books, websites, and social media accounts — we want to help promote you!
4. In the same MS Word document, include a note about your poem/prose or creative process written in the first person (this is optional — but encouraged).
5. If available, send a photo of yourself in a mask, or a photo of a mask you’ve worn, as a SEPARATE jpg attachment (not in the MS Word document). If possible, also send an additional author’s photo (without a mask). Title the photos with your last name (e.g., Jones1.jpg, Jones2.jpg).
7. Email to SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com — and put “MASK” in the subject line.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday, May 31, 2020
Photo by Dan Formsma on Unsplash.
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