For this anthology, we are looking for original, unpublished poems on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock—his life, his films, his impact (on you, on the world). His legend.

To that end, here’s what we are specifically seeking.

• Poems should be original and previously unpublished. (Query for reprints.)
  
• Poems should run no more than fifty lines. (Query for longer.)
• They must feature Hitchcock—his life and/or work—as a central component.
• They can be written in any style (but please see suggestions below).
• They can take any approach to the subject matter; extreme imagery and language are OK, but only if they are essential to the work.

Now, some tips and suggestions for prospective poets.

• No poems which are simply summaries of individual films.
• No poems in which Hitchcock and his work are only tangential—i.e., no poems about how you lost your virginity in the back seat of a Buick at a drive-in while Psycho was on, unless Psycho itself is in some way central to the meaning and impact of the poem.
• Biographically-oriented poems about aspects of Hitchcock’s life are fine, but they must offer insight into whatever event(s) you are portraying.
• Fantasy scenarios are acceptable, but only if the poem in some way makes us think about Hitchcock in a new, deeper way. A poem in which Hitchcock is randomly placed on Mars is unlike to succeed, but a poem in which he, say, speaks to some of his actors in the afterlife might. Fantasy scenarios need to have some sort of psychological or metaphorical resonance.
• A poem which is simply a personal response to Hitchcock’s work is fine, but if it tells us nothing more than, say, that The Birds scared you when you were ten, it’s unlikely to be of use to us. Everyone knows The Birds is scary. Make us think of the film in new ways.
• Keep in mind that while Hitchcock produced a huge list of notable films, many viewers know him best today for a small handful—notably Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds, along with perhaps two or three others. We are likely to receive many poems which center on those particular films. You might consider digging deeper into his filmography for your subject matter.
• Poets thinking of submitting work to this anthology should be familiar with contemporary modes of poetry. Studying recent issues of Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Paris Review, and other leading literary journals is a good place to start. Any significant anthology of the major poets of the past 50 years would also be an excellent resource.
• The dominant mode of poetry today is free verse, and we expect that much of what we publish will take that form. But we are open to more formal styles of poetry.
• If you wish to use rhyme, it needs to be subtle. “June/spoon,â€� “dance/romanceâ€� types of rhymes will almost certainly get a poem rejected. (Also please refrain from rhyming “Hitchâ€� with anything.) For examples of subtle rhyme, again, consult any of the leading verse journals, especially Poetry.
• Light verse is welcome, but please note that “light verseâ€� is not the same thing as flippant or silly verse. Effective light verse is witty, creative, and insightful, with a genuine sense of the language and its rhythms. Writers who wish to submit light verse should be familiar with contemporary masters of the form such as John Updike and Billy Collins. No doggerel, please.
• Prose poems are acceptable—but the term “prose poemâ€� is not a synonym for “short-short storyâ€� or “flash fiction.â€� A prose poem may or may not have a sense of narrative, but it definitely features the same attention to language, rhythm, and imagery as any other poem. Recommended reading: Great American Prose Poems edited by David Lehman; Models of the Universe edited by Friebert and Young.
• In general, while we definitely want work that is subtle and suggestive, poets should strive for clarity. We hope to create an anthology which will appeal not just to poetry readers, but to Hitchcock fans everywhere. As a result, poetry that is deliberately obscure or difficult stands little chance here (T.S. Eliot was a great poet, but please don’t send us your version of “The Waste Landâ€�). The poems we want are written in a way that any intelligent, curious reader can enjoy them—including readers who don’t normally read poetry. Contemporary poets in this mode you might consider familiarizing yourself with (and ones we happen to like) include Donald Hall, Robert Bly, Rita Dove, Adrienne Rich, C.K. Williams, Ai, Sharon Olds, William Heyen, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Jack Gilbert.

Reading Period:

• We welcome submissions from writers beginning September 1st, 2009. Please do not submit before September 1st; any submissions received before then will be deleted, unread.
• The submission period ends February 28th, 2010.

Submissions Specifics:

• Submit one poem only. We’ll contact you if we wish to see more. Your poem must not run more than 50 lines. Do not submit multiple short poems totaling fewer than 50 lines, submit ONE POEM ONLY.
• Payment is the established HWA professional rate of $0.25 (twenty-five cents) cents per line, with a $5 minimum.
• Please include a brief message in the body of your e-mail. We want to know who you are! If you have previous publication credits, tell us about them (it’s okay if you don’t—new writers are welcome). If you have any particular background in poetry or Hitchcock studies which you think is relevant, tell us about that. But please keep your message BRIEF—limit yourself to one paragraph or so.
• Send submissions to DSPSubmissions(at)AOL(dot)com.

Formatting Requirements:

• Send as Word attachments only – do not send submissions in the body of an email or as any other type of attachment;
• Use Times-New Roman, 12-point font;
• Single-space your poem. Indicate a stanza break with a blank line. If a stanza break happens to coincide with the bottom of a page, type [stanza break] in the appropriate place;
• Use 1-inch margins — this includes top, bottom, left and right;
• Film titles within poems are to be italicized — do not use all caps or bold;
• Working title of poem center on first page — do not use italics or all caps, no quotations;
• No headers or footers;
• No page numbers;
• At the top of the first page in the left-hand corner, single-spaced, please include the following information:

Name
Street Address
City, State, Zip Code
Email Address
Line Count
(body of submission, excluding title)

Notification of Writers:

• Email confirmations will be sent upon submission. If you do not receive a confirmation that your submission has been received after two weeks, first check your Spam folder and then drop us a line. We’ve also taken the time to create this project-specific blog in an effort to communicate with writers. Please bookmark the page and check back for updates on where we stand with submissions.
• Expect to hear back on your submission between 60 and 90 days from the date of confirmation. Poems will be either accepted or rejected outright, or we may ask to hold a poem until the end of our reading period. We realize that six months is a long period to ask to hold onto a particular poem, but because of the nature of this project we anticipate high interest and multiple submissions in various areas of Hitchcock’s life and work. At DSP, we realize that a writer’s time is money. If you receive an email from us asking to hold onto your submission until the end of the process and don’t want to tie up your work that long, simply let us know and we’ll take the piece out of consideration and release it back to you with our best wishes.

Questions:

• Questions? Hopefully, we’ve covered all bases with these guidelines. If not and there is a pressing need for information, you may contact us at darkscribepress(at)aol(dot)com. Due to time constraints, it may not be possible to answer questions individually. We will, however, compile questions and answer them here on the blog. Bookmark and check back often.
• Please do not email us asking if a particular film or specific aspect of Hitchcock’s life has already been covered; these emails will not be answered.

Publication Date: August 2010 (subject to change)

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Dark Scribe Magazine Submissions

Dark Scribe Magazine is a virtual publication that focuses exclusively on the creative forces behind horror, suspense, thrillers, and other dark fiction and non-fiction works. While the thrust of the magazine is on writers, we maintain a strong secondary focus on editors, artists, screenwriters, retailers, short story fiction markets, and Internet sites that support dark genre literature. Our target audience includes readers of horror, suspense, thrillers and other dark genre fiction, genre authors, publishers, retailers, and webmasters, aspiring writers, and bibliophiles. Dark Scribe Magazine is freelance friendly and welcomes outside submissions. We are committed to the quality of the material in our magazine; the publication track record of our writers is of secondary interest. Our goal is to establish solid working relationships with our writers and the writing community at large. To that extent, we are endeavoring to offer competitive pay rates as defined by recognized professional writers associations (i.e. HWA, SFWA). As the creative forces behind the magazine are writers themselves, we have attempted to create submission criteria that are clear and concise, yet detailed enough to avoid ambiguity and wasted time.

Recognizing that time is money for both publisher and writer, we will respond to queries in as timely a manner as possible, which usually means within (30) days or less. Final decisions regarding queried submissions will be made within 60-90 days upon submission. 

Payment will be made to writers (or to a writer’s agent upon request) within (30) days of electronic publication. 

These are Dark Scribe Magazine’s current needs: 

Interviews: With authors, artists, editors, screenwriters, and other notable professionals involved in some aspect of dark genre literature.

Tips: While standard profile pieces are acceptable in certain cases, we are looking for interviews with strong angles or themes. Be sure to convey the angle(s) or theme(s) of your proposed interview when pitching an idea to us.

Status: Currently closed to freelance submissions.

 
Terms: $0.05 (five cents) per word

Non-Fiction: Must pertain to some aspect of dark genre literature. Examples of current interests include: publishing trends, collecting trends, reports on author and publishing events (awards programs, conventions, etc.), profiles of iconic figures in dark genre literature, comparative analyses between the works of different authors (both modern and classic), and essays pertaining to dark genre literature and related topics.

Tips: We are looking for engaging pieces that will be of interest to a broad cross-section of our readership – think literary but not academic.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with proposals before submitting. State availability of photos.

Terms: $0.05 (five cents) per word up to 3,000-word maximum word count; byline given w/ photo.

Reviews:

Book Reviews – horror, suspense, and thriller fiction and related non-fiction only, but will consider works of science fiction with a horror slant. Word count not as important as presenting a well-written, objective critical analysis of the work. Reviews should include positive and negative aspects of the work, written in professional language that focuses on the book rather than the cleverness of the reviewer. That said, we welcome well-integrated color, wit, and personal style. Our interests include primarily reviews of new titles, however we have a secondary interest in catalog reviews of authors with multiple works.

Tips: If the review contains the words “I liked/disliked this book because…� chances are it will not be considered. Likewise, if the reviewer’s personal feelings about the author (the person – whether real or perceived) make it into the review, the review will subsequently not make it into our magazine.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with name of title you’re interested in submitting.

Terms: $20 per review; byline given – no photo

Short Fiction Reviews – Dark Scribe Magazine wants to offer compact reviews of individual works of short fiction published in dark genre print journals and literary magazines. Reviews of short works of horror, suspense, and other dark genres should be succinct, critical analyses of works that are thoughtfully evaluated against short story criteria. Looking for reviews of short fiction published within the 6-month window preceding issue street date.

Tips: We’re devoting space in the magazine to spotlight the short fiction format. Short stories appearing in novel or novella-length books should be reviewed within the context of the anthology or collection in which they appear; see above for full-length book review submission guidelines.

Status: Currently accepting freelance submissions, but query first with name of short story you’re interested in reviewing. Kindly include the name of the publication in which the story appeared and the date of publication.

Terms: $10 per review; 300-word maximum; byline given – no photo

Submission Guidelines for Dark Scribe Magazine:

Send all queries to: submissions(at)darkscribepress(dot)com

Please remember that first impressions count. Your original query is important. For some useful tips on submitting email queries and our preferred format, please follow the guidelines offered here.
Queries with any kind of attachment will be deleted without being read.

State availability of photos in your query for interviews and feature pieces. Writers who go the extra mile in securing images to accompany their own pieces will impress us. Lacking the manpower of mainstream publications, writers who make our jobs easier in this regard will be strongly favored for an encore appearance in our magazine.

Once we have reviewed your query and responded indicating our interest in considering a submission, please adhere to the following format:

Send as Word attachments only – do not send submissions in body of email

Use Courier, 12-point font

Double space body of article

5-space indent at beginning of new paragraphs

No manual page breaks

No extra spacing between paragraphs – the 5-space indent will tell us where a new paragraph begins

Use 1-inch margins – this includes top, bottom, left and right

Working title of article center on page – may be all caps, no quotations

No headers or footers

No page numbers

At the top of the first page in the left-hand corner, single-spaced, please include the following information:

Name
Street Address
City, State, Zip Code
Email Address
Word Count (body of submission, excluding title)

Photos and other images will be requested once an article has been accepted for publication. When sending these, only high-resolution jpeg attachments will be accepted. A separate Word file with well-written captions and any photo credits must be included.

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Novel Submissions

Dark Scribe Press is not accepting queries for novel submissions at this time. Please check back regularly for updates.