Barn Owl Review #3: All-Poetry Issue

After much deliberation, we've decided to make Barn Owl Review #3 an all-poetry issue. Submissions begin Monday. Please check out our revised guidelines below.

BOR's open reading period will resume 1 June 2009.

Barn Owl Review 3 Call for Submissions:

Barn Owl Review welcomes submissions for its third volume, which will be an all-poetry issue. We are a handsomely designed print journal looking for work that takes risks while still connecting with readers. We aim to publish the highest quality poetry from both emerging and established writers. Barn Owl Review 3 will be released in April 2010 at the AWP bookfair in Denver. Though Barn Owl Review is a print journal, submissions are only taken electronically. Please follow our guidelines carefully.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Submit your manuscript as an attachment formatted for MS Word or .rtf with ‘Poetry Submission: NAME’ as an email subject line (for example, 'Poetry Submission: Emily Dickinson'). Include contact information in the attachment. See full guidelines link for email address.

A cover letter with contact information is required, and should be pasted into your email message and addressed to the editors. Please list your attachment's name in the body of your cover letter. We are unable to open attachments that are not specified as such.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome with immediate notification of acceptance elsewhere. No previously published work, please. Barn Owl Review will provide pre-publication galleys of accepted work. Please note that we only accept one submission per author per genre during our reading period.

POETRY: Submit 3-5 poems (in a single attachment) to the attention of the poetry editors. Barn Owl Review favors no particular poetic style or school; however, we look for innovation and risk-taking in the poems that we publish. We are interested in poems with a strong narrative or lyric presence by poets who understand the energy of the line, poems that “make it new” in a way that’s truly new. Barn Owl Review prides itself on being eclectic and strives to publish new writers alongside established ones. Submissions of inspirational/greeting card verse are not for us, but otherwise we are quite open to subject and style. Dazzle us. Curl our toes. But most of all, surprise us.

Drumroll, please

Barn Owl Review #2 will feature:

POETRY: Seth Abramson, Deborah Ager, Nin Andrews, Aimée Baker, Erica Bernheim, Jason Bredle, Robert Lee Brewer, Edward Byrne, Paula Cisewski, Elizabeth J. Colen, Rachel Dacus, J.P. Dancing Bear, Emari DiGiorgio, Steve Fellner, Brent Fisk, John Gallaher, Leslie Harrison, Anna Journey, Stephanie Kartalopoulos, Lori Lamothe, David Dodd Lee, Gary Leising, Adrian C. Louis, Greg McBride, Erika Meitner, Keith Montesano, Alison Pelegrin, Greg Rappleye, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Brent Royster, Sean Singer, Sarah Sloat, Amy Bracken Sparks, Jennifer Sullivan, Mathias Svalina, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Karen J. Weyant, Brian R. Young

CRITICAL PROSE: Kazim Ali, Megan Savage

FICTION: Christina Kapp, Sheba Karim, Edward Mullany, Tom Noyes

This year we received almost 1,500 submissions--far beyond what we'd ever imagined--and had an incredibly tough time making our decisions. Many thanks to everyone who sent us work. We only wish that we had the funds to make the issue twice its size.

Look for us at AWP: Table 724, Hilton Chicago, Southwest Hall, Lower Level

Our November 1st deadline approaches!

We'll be accepting submissions until midnight on Halloween, so don't delay. In the meantime, here's an update:

Barn Owl Review #2 Contributors as of 10/16/08

Seth Abramson * Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Aimee Baker * Erica Bernheim * Jason Bredle * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * Paula Cisewski * Rachel Dacus * J.P. Dancing Bear * Brent Fisk * John Gallaher * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Adrian C. Louis * Greg McBride * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Lee Ann Roripaugh * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Amy Bracken Sparks * Jennifer Sullivan * Mathias Svalina * Laura Madeline Wiseman * Karen J. Weyant

It's time for an update.

As of Tuesday, 8/12/08, we have now received 630 submissions since we opened on June 1st, and we are accepting submissions until November 1st (unless we have to close up early again this year). If you're still waiting to hear back from us, thanks so much for your patience!

An updated contributors' list for Barn Owl Review #2

POETRY:

Seth Abramson * Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Erica Bernheim * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * J.P. Dancing Bear * Paula Cisewski * Rachel Dacus * Brent Fisk * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Greg McBride * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Amy Bracken Sparks * Jennifer Sullivan * Mathias Svalina *
Laura Madeline Wiseman * Karen J. Weyant

CRITICAL PROSE:

Kazim Ali

Breach by Anne Haines

BOR #1 contributor Anne Haines has a new chapbook, Breach, coming out with Finishing Line Press. Order your copy today, and support this fabulous poet.

The chapbook is $12 (free shipping if ordered by July 25; add $2 shipping after that date). Advance orders will ship on or about August 22.

Praise for Breach:

In this astonishingly vital collection Anne Haines moves back and forth between land and sea, exploring every possible kind of breach and blessing. Her embrace encompasses accidents, birds, bodies, "everything that whispers," "every bone and every breath," and "every form of longing." In poems displaying a range of poetic gifts, Haines stimulates the brain and plunges deep into the heart. (Diane Lockward, author of Eve's Red Dress and What Feeds Us)

In Breach, Anne Haines continues the tradition of exploring edges, the liminal territory historically mapped by Bishop, Moore and other women. Hers is a verse of in-betweenness: in-between waking and sleeping, in-between clouds and earth, in-between animal and human, in-between the sea and land, and in-between here and there. In her poetry, water appears and reappears -- it buoys up the substance of the poem and becomes a complicated surface. Haines investigates the natural with a close, but not objective eye. Her empathy for the wilderness and its processes is evident in nearly every word. Her poetry is peaceful and frequently beautiful, but most of all, this poet creates something original. The way she negotiates the limits of language when describing nature makes the reader feel as if he/she is experiencing "what is wild" in an entirely new way. (Christine Hamm, author of The Transparent Dinner, The Salt Daughter, and others)

A Visible Sign by Jeff Newberry

BOR #1 contributor (x2) Jeff Newberry has a new chapbook out with Finishing Line Press: A Visible Sign. Order your copy here!

A few blurbs about this exciting new title:

In this collection Jeffrey Newberry demonstrates again and again that the language of faith is evergreen. These poems are as fresh as Eden's first dew. ~Mark Jarman, Epistles

How adroitly Jeff Newberry works with the noticing of contradictions, of paradoxes that make final sense, balance, and harmony. In this way, we welcome his new voice in poetry, his ability to discern new sight in shadow, new vision in breath, how he distills "the spaces between breaths," finding illumination and revelation in that hidden and observed place. His is a "theology of want" in which we may find ourselves reflected. Here is where we find the fine, new voice of Jeff Newberry, a welcome refreshment that gives us again to the detailed image, the new, the alien and the familiar. ~Nicholas Samaras, Hands of the Saddlemaker

Contributor list as of 7/7/08

Here's a sampling of the poets who will appear in Barn Owl Review #2! We've been open for submissions for a little over a month, and have received about 300 subs so far between the genres. Thus, we've only been able to make it through a fraction of the submissions, so do not fret if you are stil waiting to hear from us.

Poets who will be featured in Barn Owl Review #2:

Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * J.P. Dancing Bear * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Jennifer Sullivan * Karen J. Weyant

Important news flash: Barn Owl Review #1 is now officially sold out! You can pre-order a copy of BOR #2 now, though. We will also begin posting interviews on our website soon. I'll keep you posted.