UPDATE: We have decided to accept multiple submissions for our PRIME MOVERS Poetry & Prose Series. Authors can submit to three poems or stories (or poems and stories!). If you like to honor more than one person, feel free to do so by sending up to three pieces (submission details below).
OVERVIEW: While many of us are working at home and limiting our time outside, the world has to keep moving – and people on the front lines are making that happen. Let’s celebrate these heroes with our PRIME MOVERS Poetry & Prose Series – and pay tribute to our health care workers, child and elder care providers, teachers, postal workers, delivery staff, warehouse workers, trash collectors, food service workers, grocers, gas station staff, auto mechanics, bus drivers, train engineers, veterinarians, barbers, beauticians, and so many others who are putting themselves out there to maintain life as we know it.
PROMPT: Think about a front-line worker that you’ve interacted with or have observed doing his or her work. Tell us about your interactions or observations in a poem (any reasonable length) or prose piece (300 words or fewer — this word limit also applies to prose poems). We prefer narrative work written from a personal perspective, and avoid material that attempts to speak for the world at large or comes across as didactic or preachy.
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 — the main benefit to you is that we will publicize your work to our 10,000+ followers. If your piece was previously published, please tell us where/when so we can credit the original publisher.
WHEN: We’ll feature the poems and prose in the Silver Birch Press PRIME MOVERS Poetry and Prose Series on our blog starting in late August 2020. We’ll also feature the work on Twitter and Facebook.
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). Also list your home state or country.
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 with the person you’re writing about — or a photo of the person you’re writing about — as a SEPARATE jpg attachment (not in the MS Word document). If you submit a photo of the worker, let him/her know it will be featured on a blog and ask if the person would like us to include his/her name. (If the person agrees, ask for an email address so we can inform him/her of the post.) We are making reporters out of all who submit for this series! If possible, also send an additional author’s photo for your bio. Title the photos with your last name (e.g., Jones1.jpg, Jones2.jpg).
6. Email to SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com — and put “PRIME MOVERS” in the subject line.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Tuesday, September 15, 2020
PHOTO: U.S. Post Office worker, Bisbee, Arizona (April 2020) by Thomas Carlson, used by permission.
Silver Birch Press 