[SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED] Call for Contributions: Magma 52 “putting on the mask”

I’m excited to be Editor of Magma 52 with Helen Nicholson as Assistant Editor, and the theme for the issue is “putting on the mask”.

I chose this theme because all of us from time to time put on a mask of one kind or another, perhaps for reasons of good manners, or self-preservation against hurt or anger or love.

And because I have a love of the theatre where assumed or, occasionally, real masks are used to create characters or explore ideas.

And because nowadays some jobs demand real masks.

I’m hoping for poems that touch on the relationship between reality and perception, where your poem unravels hidden layers or where the poem’s central character may not mean what s/he says.  Or I’d welcome poems where the nature of perception is explored.

Or I’d welcome dramatic monologues, or poems from the view of the actor behind the monologue, or poems written from the perspective of fictional characters from books or plays who do not normally get a voice.

Or does the mask of the surgeon, the fire-fighter, the clown, the pedestrian-wary-of-car-fumes, become part of who they are?  Or become a device to conceal the individual?

Or you may not want to write a poem on this theme, and poems not on theme are welcome too.

But do you catch a glimpse of someone’s real or imagined mask out of the corner of your eye as you go about your day?  Which way does it face you as you start to write?

Roberta James, Editor, Magma 52

The deadline is 30 October 2011. Off-theme poems will also be considered. Please see the Contributions page for details of how to submit your poems.