How To Submit Your Work

Heron Tree volume 9 will be dedicated to found poems composed from sources published in or before 1926.

Between 15 August 2021 and 15 January 2022 we will be accepting submissions in the following categories:

1. Found poems created from any source material(s) published before 1926.
2. Found poems created from John Mills’ Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son (1922).
3. Found poems created from the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s short story collections include Twice-Told Tales (1837 and 1842), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852), A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1851), and Tanglewood Tales (1853).

We encourage you to download and read some collections of found poems that we have published in the past: Found in the Public Domain, Songs, From the Blue Fairy, Of Climates & Continents, and all the poems in volume 8.

More information:

– We are interested in any and all approaches to found poetry construction and erased or remixed texts.

– Poems that are not in one of the three categories listed above will not be considered.

– If you are working with a text that was translated into English, the English translation must also be published in or before 1926.

– Send up to 6 poems with a cover letter to submit.herontree@gmail.com.

– In your email cover letter please include a list of your poems’ titles.

– The poems should be attached in a single doc, docx, or pdf file. If your pieces are better viewed as digital images, insert them as jpegs within a single doc, docx, or pdf file.

– All submissions will be read blind, so do not include your name in the file with the poems.

– In the same file as the poems be sure to identify your source(s) for each poem and briefly explain your process of composition. What were your source materials and what did you do with them to yield each poem?

– Simultaneous submissions are welcome with timely notification of acceptance elsewhere.

– Poems that have previously appeared online (temporarily or permanently, on your own or a third-party site) should not be submitted, nor should work that has already been published electronically or in print.

–  Once you send your submission, you’ll receive an automatic email reply. If you don’t receive the reply, please check your spam folder and add Heron Tree to your contacts to ensure that you receive future communications about your submission.

– Submissions will be read on a rolling basis.

– You are welcome to submit more than once per submission period, but please do not send a new submission until you have heard from us about your first one.

– If your work is accepted by Heron Tree, you agree to grant us exclusive first publication rights and the non-exclusive right to include your work in the volume 9 collection and our online archives. You agree that if your poem subsequently appears elsewhere you will credit Heron Tree as the original publisher.

– Accepted poems will be published weekly on the Heron Tree website starting in February 2022 and will be included in a free, downloadable PDF volume available later in 2022.

For the sake of transparency: Heron Tree does not charge a fee for submitting nor provide payment for publication.

These guidelines are subject to change.