Submissions

Eye to the Telescope 38, Cat People, will be edited by John Philip Johnson.

Were-people. Shapeshifters. Changelings. This is one of the oldest subjects for our genre, and one of the most persistent. The idea that we could turn into something else goes way back in our psychic history. Ovid took up the tradition in his Metamorphoses, two thousand years ago. Today we have thoughts of a possible post-human tomorrow.

In this issue of Eye to the Telescope, I invite you to write about one specific kind of transformation. Of becoming a Cat. Why a Cat? Val Lewton and Simone Simon aside, I think it’s a beautiful theme to narrow down to. We have lots of cat lovers in the SFPA. I myself have five. But mostly, if we’re all writing with this one, single focus, I think it can highlight the differences in our poetic styles.

The coolest thing would be to have a dozen or so wildly divergent poems on Cat People. What I like about that is we can see seriously different poetic imaginations approaching the same topic. The treatments, that's the thing I'm looking for, that draw out the different poetic visions. Imagine how cool it would be to see a dozen fine painters all painting the same thing, say a pear! Or a cat!

However, I am aware that it might be too much to ask for. If you can’t find the inspiration or the strength or the time, I will consider a grab bag of changeling / were / metamorphosis poems. If I have to, I guess. I'd rather see a good poem than one that simply conforms to my feline predilection. But I retain an editorial preference for cat people. Can you share my sense of how thrilling this possibility is? What an exciting group experience this can be? That we can share lots of different points of view, where voice becomes crystal clear in the harmony offered by a single subject.

So, if you think you’d maybe like to join in, ask yourself, What's it like to become a cat? What's it feel like to change? What is the phenomenology of it? What stays the same? What does it tell us of our identity? And how does it happen? Do we get there scientifically? Magically? In a dream? With the help of Ovid’s capricious gods? And once you’re a cat, what’s that like? What do you do? Can you come back? Is it horrible to become one, all cramped down, stuffed in a cat box? Or is it a wonderful, freeing thing, a graceful thing, something perfect?

I’d love to hear from you! Thank you for your interest

—John Philip Johnson



Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please submit 1–3 poems in English (in body of e-mail, or attached as .doc, .docx, or .rtf). Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain).

Please send submissions to ettt38@sfpoetry.com with the subject line “ETTT sub:” followed by the poet’s name.

Include a short bio.

Deadline: September 15. The issue will appear on October 15, 2020.

Payment and rights

Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks.

Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.

Who can submit?

Anyone writing speculative poetry.



What is Speculative Poetry?

Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.

A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable all forms of speculative poetry.

Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):

timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/08/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1-definition/

.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/15/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2-history/



What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)?

As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”

See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining.

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Interested in editing an issue of Eye to the Telescope? See the Editors’ Guidelines for information and requirements.