CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Senior Class: Poems on Aging, Lamar University Literary Press (LULP), forthcoming 2024-2025, edited by Laurence Musgrove.
The Senior Class aims to explore through verse the themes of aging, as well as other issues related to eldercare, retirement, mortality, grief, gratitude, earned wisdom, senior living, spiritual reflection, and physical and mental decline, as well as changing dynamics in family relationships and marriage. Other themes and emotional responses are certainly possible.
FORMAL INTERESTS
We are specifically interested in poems that demonstrate careful attention to the elements of shape, line, music, comparison, and balance, and especially how those choices contribute to the cooperative aesthetics of form and thought.
We also challenge poets to consider new choices they might make in audience and poetic form as they pertain to aspects of narrative perspective, shape, sound, repetition, and enjambment.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submit by January 31, 2024, no more than 3 poems in Microsoft Word document format and composed in Times New Roman, 12-point font. The poems should not include the author’s name or other identifying information in the title or on the page.
Poems should be attached as separate documents to one email addressed to theseniorclasspoems@gmail.com and include within the body of the email (1) the titles of the poems submitted, and when applicable, previous publication information, and (2) a 50–100-word biography. Just for clarity’s sake: one email per poet with poems attached and one poem per each attached document.
Previously published poems will also be considered if the poet has the right to republish and includes in the email the previous publication information, including poem title, journal title, date of publication, and page numbers.
Poems and emails that do not follow these guidelines will be declined.
ACCEPTANCE
Authors will be notified by March 15, 2024, of inclusion in this anthology.
QUESTIONS?
Send questions to Laurence Musgrove at theseniorclasspoems@gmail.com.
EDITOR
Laurence Musgrove currently resides in Saint Charles, Illinois, and is a Professor of English at Angelo State University where he teaches creative writing, literature, and writing across the curriculum from a Buddhist perspective.
He is the author of four books: Local Bird: poems; Another Kind of Recording: aphorisms; The Bluebonnet Sutras: Buddhist dialogues in verse; and A Stranger’s Heart: poems – all from Lamar University Literary Press.
He is also the editor of Texas Poetry Assignment, an online journal dedicated to building community through poetry and hunger relief.