The Memory Palace: Announcement- Be Part of Our First Print Anthology

Interior, Strandgade 30, by Vilhelm Hammershoi (Denmark) 1908

Dear Readers and Writers,

As founder and editor of The Ekphrastic Review, I admit it has been my dream since early days to have print anthologies of our authors' brilliant ekphrastic works out in the world. I am over the moon to announce this call for submissions to The Memory Palace: Ekphrastic Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry.  This will be our first print anthology!

I am even more thrilled to announce a very special guest as co-editor. I am excited to collaborate with Clare MacQueen, curator and publisher of MacQueen's Quinterly, an incredible journal. Clare is so generous and supportive  of writers. And she shares my passion for ekphrasis, a big part of her journal's offerings. Clare's pages have been outstanding resources for and archives of flash fiction and microfiction- her previous journal was Knock Your Socks Off Flash. And like myself, she has a special place in her art and pages for prose poetry. Many of our readers and writers here at The Ekphrastic Review already know and love MacQueen's Quinterly.  Clare and I have talked for some time about teaming up  and we are so happy that this project is now under way! (Scroll to end for Clare's bio.)

Why flash fiction and prose poetry? There are countless novels inspired by visual art and at least as many collections of ekphrastic poetry. (We love novels and poetry!) There are some ekphrastic short story collections, but a paucity of ekphrastic prose poetry books or books of ekphrastic flash and microfiction. There are amazing art-inspired flashes and prose poems out there, as readers of this journal are well aware. We'd like to show them off on more bookshelves! We challenge all of you poets to try your hand at some prose poems for this project! 

The theme of this anthology is MEMORY.

"Inside everyone, there are secret rooms," wrote Charles Simic in Dime Store Alchemy, his famous collection of ekphrastic prose poems after Joseph Cornell. We want stories and prose poems that brave those secret rooms.

For this anthology, there are no specific art prompts. TER's modus operandi has been to provide an array of art prompts on a theme. This time, you can choose paintings or other visual works of art that trigger, reveal, or suggest a memory in some way. How you interpret the theme and imagery is entirely up to you.

Rules

1. The theme is "memory." How you interpret this theme is up to you.  

2. Flash fiction and prose poetry up to 1000 words.

3. Submit up to three stories or prose poems. Combining flash and prose poetry submissions is fine.

4. You will respond to artwork of your own choosing for each piece. This can be any painting, sculpture, fine art photograph, collage, etc. Your work will be inspired by the art you choose, as well as the theme. You can write from the artwork in any direction you are moved to. Follow your inspiration. Artwork will most likely be referenced but not reproduced in the anthology, due to cost and copyright considerations.

5. Send your works together in a single Word document. Include a brief 100 word bio in the body of your email, not in the document with your stories or prose poems.

6. Do not include your name in the document. Works will be read blind.

7. Submit works with subject line MEMORY to [email protected].

8. Include the title, artist, country and date for each artist, along with a link to view the art. Example: Memory Lane, by Jane Doe (Mexico) 1996. www.link.com

9. There is no entry fee.

10. Contributors selected for the anthology will receive a PDF copy. The print anthology will be priced as low as possible to make it widely accessible to everyone, with the PDF version available free to anyone. 

11. The anthology will be published by The Ekphrastic Review. 

12. The selection of the editors will be final.

13. Stories and poems must be unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are fine, as long as you alert us immediately if your work is selected elsewhere.

14. The deadline is September 1, 2023.

15. Please tell everyone you know who would be interested about this opportunity. 

**

Clare MacQueen is founding editor and publisher of the literary journals MacQueen’s Quinterly and KYSO Flash. She edited, designed, and published 20 print books via KYSO Flash Press (retired 2020). Her own fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appear in Bricolage, Firstdraft, New Flash Fiction Review, and elsewhere; and her essays, in Best New Writing 2007 and Winter Tales II: Women on the Art of Aging. As webmaster for Serving House Journal, MacQueen published 18 issues from 2010 to 2018. She also co-edited Steve Kowit: This Unspeakably Marvelous Life (Serving House Books, 2015), and served as a judge for the 2017 Steve Kowit Poetry Prize and for the 2021 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize.