Call for submissions: an anthology of ecopoetry by Two Ravens Press

Following our recent initiative to refocus our list on ‘eco-literature’ and writing that challenges and unpicks the status quo (see www.tworavenspress.com), and the announcement of our new magazine, EarthLines, Two Ravens Press is delighted to announce that, in November 2012, we will publish a volume of collected ecopoetry that addresses the complex relationship between people and the natural world.

As we face the reality of climate change and the likelihood of irreversible damage to the biosphere, we are frequently called to alter our behaviour and lifestyles, to revisit our relationship with the environment and, somehow, to ‘reconnect with nature’. But what does reconnection mean, and, more importantly, what does it imply? And does literature, and specifically poetry, have any role to play in that reconnection? Is it ‘the song of the earth’ as has been claimed?  Can a poem help bridge the growing dissociation that pervades the relationships between contemporary humans and the natural world? Is poetry in itself a form of environmental action, or can it inspire action?  

In November 2012 Two Ravens Press will publish a volume of new poetry that addresses these questions. With an introduction by Dr David Borthwick (University of Glasgow) which questions the moods of estrangement, guilt and elegy which one finds in recent poetic responses to nature, the anthology will be the focus for a new wave of poetry that seeks to directly respond to the world in which we find ourselves, and that dramatises a growing hunger for a meaningful connection with the earth. 

We are now requesting submissions for this volume. 

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 If you would like to submit your work to our ecopoetry anthology, please email up to three poems that clearly fit the brief above to editors Sharon Blackie and David Knowles at info[at]tworavenspress[dot]com.  We will accept attachments in Microsoft Word format only, or poetry can be included in the body of the email. We will ONLY accept submissions by email. Please include a short biography with your submission, in the body of the email.

The deadline for submissions is March 31 2012. 

We are looking for new, previously unpublished poetry – unless it appears in a very recent or forthcoming collection (in which case please note that we have no budget for permissions fees, and inclusion in the anthology would need to be agreed in writing with the relevant publisher of the collection on that basis). 

Please note that if we turn down your submission it will be either because we do not believe that it fits with the theme of the anthology as expressed above, or because we do not feel the work is of sufficient quality. We’re unable to give detailed feedback; one of the reasons we do not give specific reasons for rejecting work is through long painful experience in book publishing at Two Ravens Press: due to an astonishing number of disgruntled, argumentative and often plain offensive emails from people for whom we’ve taken the time to give honest, albeit necessarily brief, reasons for turning down their work, we find that the most pleasant route is to provide no comment at all.

All contributors to the anthology will receive a free copy of the published book. Royalties of 8% RRP will be offered on sales of the book but we propose to donate those royalties on behalf of all contributors to the John Muir Trust, the UK’s leading wild land conservation charity. 

For any further information, please contact Sharon Blackie: info[at]tworavenspress[dot]com