Earth Day: Call for Submissions 2021

Last year we started the tradition of publishing an eChapbook to celebrate Earth Day and National Poetry Month. This tradition will continue in 2021. This will be a free PDF collection that will be distributed via email, social media, and posted on this blog.

The focus of the collection is on learning from the Earth.

What does the landscape teach you? What do you learn from water? How has your relationship changed with trees? What lessons are found in the elements or encounters with animals?

What do we need to learn about climate change? How can we live lightly?

Nature has so much to teach us. Let’s capture our lessons and our questions.

Submission Guidelines

for this Earth Day and

National Poetry Month Project

Contributors will maintain copyright for their work and submissions will only be used for this e-Chapbook project. All contributors will be emailed a copy of the e-Chapbook to share with whoever they choose. This collection will be published by Jessica Outram and Sunshine in a Jar Press.

This collection is open to anyone of all ages who wants to contribute.

What to submit?

Poetry
Photography or Artwork
Your name (we will not be including bios)

What types of files are accepted?

Word document (.doc) files
Rich Text Format (.rtf) files
Portable Document Format (.pdf) files
For more visual poetry and/or for Photography/Artwork: JPEG, PNG, or PDF

How will poems be selected?

Is the poem ready to publish? (no editing required)
Does the poem fit the mission and vision of the Poet Laureate?
Only one submission per writer/artist.

Submissions are due March 15, 2021. Email: poetlaureate@cobourg.ca

The e-Chapbook will be launched online at noon on Earth Day, April 22, 2021 via the Poetry Present subscriber list (so be sure to sign-up!). It will also be posted on Facebook and Twitter.

13 Comments

Larry Kosowan

December 14, 2020 at 7:56 pm Reply

I may submit a haiku series – if that’s not considered to be multiple entries…?

Jessica Outram

December 14, 2020 at 8:10 pm Reply

Absolutely–that’s fine!
- Elayne Linn
  
  February 4, 2021 at 8:49 pm Reply
  
  Would I submit a paragraph with a photo? Just one photo?
  - Jessica Outram
    
    February 5, 2021 at 8:01 am Reply
    
    You can! Or a title. You can always submit more than one and I can see how to make it fit. If we get a high volume of entries it may be trickier to fit everything.

Ellen Urowitz

January 22, 2021 at 5:34 pm Reply

Is it a chap book of my work?
Or everyone together?

Jessica Outram

January 22, 2021 at 6:09 pm Reply

It’s a collection of poetry from multiple poets.

Ellen Urowitz

January 26, 2021 at 12:15 pm Reply

Thank you
How many poems?
Can I send haiku?

Jessica Outram

January 28, 2021 at 3:56 pm Reply

It is one poem per writer; however, I have said that if you would like to submit a couple haiku’s I can put them on the same page.
- Ellen Urowitz
  
  February 1, 2021 at 9:30 am Reply
  
  Thank you.

Stephanie Newbern

February 7, 2021 at 5:12 pm Reply

Hi Jessica,

1) Do you send acceptance/rejection notices? If so, when do you send, and is it through email?
2) When submitting a poem or haiku, do we put our name on the document?
3) Can you explain what you mean by submitting photography/artwork? Do you mean sending a photo of what inspired the poem/haiku submission? Can it be a generic photo/artwork, or is it something we create ourselves?

Thank you!
Stephanie

Jessica Outram

February 7, 2021 at 6:48 pm Reply

Hi Stephanie,

1) I always let the poet know and always through email.
2) Yes, please put your name on the document. This is not a contest so name’s are helpful!
3) Some people submit poetry and some people submit photography or art. Yes, the image needs to be something you’ve created.

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.