Detailed Guidelines - Poetry
DesiLit Magazine welcomes submissions of poetry in all genres and styles. We are seeking original and innovative poems that capture the essence of South Asia or its diaspora, as well as pieces inspired by South Asia.
What we want
- We are looking for unique poetry:
- that negotiates between the topical and the eternal
- that shows South Asian culture as one of the variations of human culture
- that not only extends but also disrupts our beings
- that plays with our prejudices and our politics
We accept all types of work, including excerpts from longer works—i.e. send us sonnets or lyrics, but make us sing along. Length is no bar, but do keep in mind that extremely long and rambling pieces are less likely to be chosen. There is no minimum word requirement. We pay a flat fee of $20 per piece.
How to Submit
To submit, send up to 5 poems at one time in plain text format in the body of an email (RTF and Microsoft Word attachments also acceptable) to poetry@desilit.org. For the subject line of your email please use the following subject line- Submission Poetry: Your Poem Title(s). However, replace "Your Poem Title(s)" with the title(s) of your poems. Please include your complete contact information and a few sentences about yourself with your submission, including previous publications if applicable.
We will appreciate meticulously written poems though we understand that some liberties with language are necessary for a poet.s style. We might send them back to you for changes. Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, provided you let us know immediately in case it is being published elsewhere. We will try to acknowledge every submission, but we will surely get in touch with you within two months if we decide to publish your work. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, and the editorial board reserves sole discretion to choose publication date. All submissions must be original and previously unpublished. All editing and publication decisions are made by a collective editorial board.
For more information, please contact Sumita Sheth, Executive Editor.
