Newsletter #44: A gentle nudge

Hello everyone,

The deadline for our call for pamphlet submissions is this very Sunday, so I thought I'd send out my final newsletter of 2017 a bit early and do a final push for submissions. If you're teetered on the edge of sending us something, this is for you! And if you know someone who's a great writer but nervous about sending out their work, do forward this email on to them.

Previously I've felt secretly ambivalent about our calls for submissions, as they entail a lot of admin at my end. But that was when it was just me and Rachel reading the submissions, and me doing all the admin – now we've got a team! Now there's me (Emma Wright), Rachel Piercey, Yen-Yen Lu and Richard O'Brien, plus Charlotte Geater joined the team last week and will be pitching in to help read submissions too. We'll be able to spend more time reading each individual submission carefully, and I've planned moderation meetings for next year so we can talk about how we are getting on with reading the submissions and learn from each other.

We recognise what a brave, exposing thing it is to send your writing out into the world, and we will be the kindest, most welcoming and encouraging place for your manuscript to reside for a few months. You only have to send in 6 pages by Sunday, and then you'll have several months to work on the rest while you're waiting to hear about the shortlist. Of course you don't have to send us anything, but if you do but are scared, my advice is just to do it anyway, as it's good to experience submitting and you couldn't be sending your work out to a nicer set of people. Have a read of the editor profiles and see if you like the sound of anyone, and then check out all the articles and interviews Yen-Yen has commissioned from our authors for our blog, discussing what it's like to work with us. You can find them all here, and also by clicking on the photos below.

Read the submissions guidelines

Submissions Update

Open calls for submissions

There are just a couple of days left in our call for PAMPHLET SUBMISSIONS. The deadline is Sunday 10th December and you can read the guidelines here.

Closed calls for submissions

* Sorry sorry sorry for the lateness on responding to the poems about BRITAIN and TRAVEL! We're very close to finishing and will send out responses before Christmas. I emailed everyone who submitted, using the Google forms, so if you got my email then you can rest assured that you'll get a response soon too. Some of the emails bounced (with expired university email addresses etc), but that's ok as you've got this update here.

* Richard is aiming to respond to everyone who submitted to our call for DINOSAUR poems by the end of January.

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This is a complete update on all of our calls for submissions, and we do send responses to everyone's submissions individually. In the meantime, just keep an eye on our newsletters for news of our progress and read our blog to find out what we do when we process submissions.

That's all for now! Do forward this newsletter onto your friends if you think they might enjoy it, or encourage them to sign up themselves.

Best wishes,

Emma Wright

Publisher at the Emma Press