hotpoet has launched Equinox, a biannual digital multimedia journal that showcases poets, writers, and artists. While solstices are the extremes of the year, an equinox is equidistant, poised on the edge of one thing or another, the cusp of change or transformation. With this archetypal significance in mind, Equinox strives to explore the contemplative and motivational power of writers and artists; to celebrate how word and image
can create a world and then change it.  

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Submission
We invite you to send us your poems, flash fiction, flash essay, photography, and art. We look for contemplative, argumentative, globally aware, despair-resistant, and apathy-abolishing works. 

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Submission Periods and Publication Dates:

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Spring Submission: December 20th through February 20th, with a publication date of March 20th.

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Spring Theme: Fire|Flies. Since fire does indeed fly, both literally and metaphorically, this theme is open to a variety of interpretations. You might reminisce about the fireflies that flickered over your parents' lawn as a child, the ones you caught and trapped in mason jars. Perhaps you explore the spark of passion between two people. Maybe it is an intellectual spark that leads even to revolutions and brings down power structures. Fire could also refer to anger and conflict, whether personal or national. Or you might address this theme literally, bringing awareness to the environmental crisis that has caused rampant wildfires to rage, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Or something else entirely...We encourage you to listen to your own muse and share your fresh and original interpretations of this theme.

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We accept submissions via Submittable. 

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Fall Submission: June 15th through August 1st with a publication date of September 21st.

Fall Theme: To be announced.

 

Submission Guidelines:

1. You may submit up to 3 pieces in any one genre (poetry, flash prose, or image) for a reading fee of $5, which will be used toward ongoing programs and publications at hotpoet, and which will fund a $100 “best in show” prize for every category of work (poetry, flash prose, and image) in each edition of Equinox.

2. You may submit more than three pieces or in multiple genres, but separate submissions are needed to do so and separate reading fees will be assessed for each.

3. We do not accept previously published work, whether online, self-published, in chapbooks, in anthologies, or in literary journals. We do accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you immediately withdraw any piece that gets accepted elsewhere for publication.

4. All submissions must be in standard font and formatting. Poetry should be single spaced with double spacing between stanzas. Prose should be double-spaced and include a word count. There is no line limit for poetry, but flash fiction and flash essay should be limited to 500 words. Images should be in png format.

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