SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: CATCHMENT – POETRY OF PLACE
GENERAL
Since our team is small, contributions can only be accepted from Australian poets.
Contributors also need to provide a biographical statement, up to 50 words in length.
Submit only one bio statement per edition, offering it during the submission process.
Longer poems & tanka (in Eng) can be submitted, at one time, all focussed on place.
A brief note can be included below poems in either style to give a sense of locality.
A location’s name could be incorporated into the body of a longer poem or a tanka.
Poems need not identify a place: they may also address locations outside Australia.
A footnote could define vocabulary/ translate terms used/ acknowledge a source.
If text is shaped (e.g. gaps/ symmetrically), a clear note is needed, in the same box.
Yet additional notes should not explain poems: let the work speak for itself…
Please take note of other guidelines provided, specific to either verse form.
Poetry offered has to be your own original work, neither plagiarised nor aided by AI.
Contributions cannot be under consideration elsewhere or published previously.
Soon after the submission period closes, poets will be advised about acceptances.
Work selected for inclusion should not be shared, please, prior to our release date.
Poets will retain copyright, free to re-publish later, with Catchment acknowledged.
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS
Bios should provide details about involvement in writing/ publications/ achievements.
In fifty (50) words or less, start with your name, using the third-person (he/ she/ they).
Given our focus on poetry of place, poets should offer a sense of their own location.
Contributors are encouraged to acknowledge traditional owners of country.
Poets may also include a sense of their working life/ other interests.
LONGER POETRY
Three (3) longer poems per poet can be offered, in separate text boxes, at one time.
Any single longer contribution should not be greater than thirty (30) lines in length.
Each such piece needs to work in a stand-alone way, yet poems can be a multi-part.
Titles are essential with all longer work: they will not be considered in the line-count.
Dedications may be added below the title, also not being considered in the 30 lines.
Spaces left blank below titles/ between stanzas/ sections likewise won’t be counted.
Please do NOT offer haibun, as if it is longer poetry: instead, it is prose, with haiku.
Work in Western set-forms is welcome, as well as free verse, but no bush ballads.
TANKA
All tanka offered in one submission must be copied into the single text box provided.
Poets may contribute up to (5) stand-alone tanka, each being five (5) lines in length.
Using that same box, a sequence/ string of four (4) tanka can be submitted instead.
No title should precede a stand-alone tanka, yet one should be given before a string.
A sub-title can be included there, indicating it is a sequence/ giving a sense of place.
Poets should aim to show a grasp of approaches used in English Language tanka.
Western poetic strategies like explicit similes/ full rhyming should not be employed.
Generally, you will not encounter published tanka featuring a multitude of full verbs.
Following a shorter-longer-shorter-longer-longer pattern – in line-length – can help.
You need NOT adopt a strict 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic count: no extras as ‘fillers’ please…
Tanka may work as one sentence, yet having two sections is often more effective.
These can be punctuated with a dash/ ellipsis at the end of any of the first four lines.
If used at all, a full verb could appear in one part, with a participle (…ing) in the other.
A break might offer a link-and-shift (e.g. between the natural world & human nature).
It may imply feeling/ similarity/ difference/ juxtaposition: leave this to readers to see.
With such work, less is best: some poets see the audience as completing the poem.