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Submissions

Eye to the Telescope 56, Plants, will be edited by Eva Papasoulioti.

Trees, flowers, shrubs; a green sea of liveliness, thrumming with energy. We have been using plants’ offerings for our survival ever since the dawn of time. Oxygen, food, clothes, tools, medicines: the list is endless and ever-growing. At the same time, the local flora have influenced our beliefs, blossomed in our myths and tales, seeded our science; we’ve made gods of the forests, of spring, of harvest season.

Plants and people coexist, co-depend, coevolve. 

Send us poems in the theme of plants, from all cultural backgrounds. Show the impact of plants not only in life, but also in death. Poems about conspiring rainforests and singing Venus flytraps, roses that hide secrets and communities in their hundreds of petals, alien ferns that translate feelings. Poison ivies that survive deep space, thirty-meter azaleas terraforming Mars, myths about children made of pine needles.

Plants are home, culture and mystery. Create in their depths.

Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

  • Use the form at https://bit.ly/SFPAettt56 to submit.
  • Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain).
  • Inquiries only to ettt56@sfpoetry.org with “ETTT” in the subject line.
  • Deadline: March 15. The issue will appear on April 15, 2025.

Payment and rights

  • Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
  • The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks.
  • Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.

Who can submit?

Any human writing speculative poetry. Please no AI-generated works or AI-human collaborations. Note SFPA’s new AI policy: https://sfpoetry.com/ai-statement.html


What is Speculative Poetry?

Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.

A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable to all forms of speculative poetry.

Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):

timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/08/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1-definition/

.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/15/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2-history/


What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)?

As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”

See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining.

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Interested in editing an issue of Eye to the Telescope? See the Editors’ Guidelines for information and requirements.