MOTHER letters
We’re issuing this call for submissions on Leap Day 2024! My mother was born in February during a Leap Year, and though she’s been gone for 10 years, she remains alive in my thoughts. With this in mind, we’re announcing our ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Poetry Series (with a nod to the movie of the same title by Pedro Almódovar). Relationships, especially familial ones, are complex, so your poems can reflect that dynamic—from light to dark. Thanks in advance for offering your work for the series. My mother loved the arts—especially the literature—and I know she’d be pleased to have sparked the idea for our ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Series.

PROMPT: Share a poem about your mother or a mother figure in your life. What we like: First-person narrative poems that offer insight into the author’s life, mind, thoughts, feelings.  What we don’t like: Didactic poems and most rhyming poetry (we make exceptions for poetic forms such as sonnets, villanelles, and pantoums). Note: One poem per author, please.

WHAT: Submissions can be original or previously published poems. 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 poem was previously published, please tell us where/when so we can credit the original publisher.

WHEN: We’ll feature the poems on the Silver Birch Press blog during the ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Poetry Series starting in March 2024. We’ll also feature the poetry on Facebook. and X (Twitter).

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

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

1. Send the poem in an MS Word document TITLED WITH YOUR LAST NAME (e.g. Smith.doc or Jones.docx or some variation thereof).

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’re 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 or creative process written in the first person (this is optional — but encouraged).

5. To accompany your author’s bio, send a photo of yourself as a SEPARATE jpg attachment (not in the MS Word document). Title the photo with your last name (e.g., Jones1.jpg, Jones2.jpg or some variation thereof).

6. Send a photo of your mother (at any age) and/or a photo of you with your mother. (This is optional, but encouraged.) Please provide a caption for the photo (date, occasion, location).

7. Email your MS Word document and attachments to sbpsubmissions@gmail.com—and put “ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER” in the subject line. Please allow several weeks for our reply.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, April 15, 2024

Photo by Nastassia Samal.