[SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED]
Call for submission – Magma 90, Grassroots

The submissions window for ‘Grassroots’ is open from 1 – 31 March 2024.

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Grassroots

What does Grassroots mean to you? Community? Activism? Environmentalism? Or something else?

At a time of unprecedented global turmoil where our political elites struggle to deal with the pressing issues of the day – climate change, ongoing wars, and social inequalities – where are your grassroots?

Within the poetry world, grassroots organisations, online and in-person, have supported poets to promote diversity, provide mentorship, nurture and develop talent and creativity. Cave Canem, The Obsidian Foundation, Invisible Presence, Zoeglossia, and The Complete Works are just a few examples. Where do you feel supported, and what does thriving, or just surviving, look like to you at the grassroots level?

Magma Poetry sprung from a grassroots ethos. A group of poets got together to set up a magazine to publish the sort of poetry they would like to read. This year, a grassroots poetry magazine is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and its established, international reputation. Things have changed a lot along the way. Another challenge to explore – how do you stay true to your grassroots? When things grow from seeds – responsibilities, roles and identities change. However much you’ve changed, what connects you to your roots – be they heritage, personal, community or class-based? When you look back – or forward – what really matters?

We are facing swathing cuts to grants for the arts, and many grassroots organisations, community venues, and magazines have folded or are under threat with rising costs of production, rent and the effort involved to keep everything going. Can a grassroots attitude work indefinitely with bills to pay and your time and energy at stake?

We are interested in poems that explore grassroots issues in a variety of forms and approaches. You do not need to be actively involved in a grassroots organisation to submit, but you might write on the visible results or impacts felt by grassroots organisations.

We are rooting for you and look forward to reading your poems!

Lisa Kelly and Patrizia Longhitano

Editors, Magma 90: Grassroots

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Wanting to submit to Magma 90? You may submit

Up to 4 previously unpublished poems in a single Word document.

We are now accepting simultaneous submissions – but please withdraw your submission or contact us if it is accepted for publication somewhere else first.

Got to Submittable for more details.

If you live in the UK and wish to send poems by post, our address is:

Magma Poetry
23 Pine Walk
Carshalton
SM5 4ES

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About the editors:

Lisa Kelly‘s second collection, The House of the Interpreter (Carcanet), is a Poetry Book Society Summer 2023 Recommendation. Her first collection, A Map Towards Fluency (Carcanet), was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize 2021. She has single-sided deafness and co-edited What Meets the Eye?: The Deaf Perspective (Arachne Press). She is a regular host of poetry evenings at grassroots venue, The Torriano Meeting House, Kentish Town, London.

Patrizia Longhitano @goldwildpoppy (she/her) is a pansexual Latinx immigrant poet and visual artist who lives in London. Some of her poems have appeared in Wet Grain, Painted Spoken, Harana Poetry Magazine, Un Nuevo Sol anthology and the album ‘We Will Keep On’. Her poetry videos are available on the Poetry Translation Centre website and on her personal YouTube channel. Some of her performances, workshops and multimedia poetry installations have appeared at the Southbank, TEXTUS exhibition, Whitstable Biennale and Cheltenham Literature Festival. Since summer 2023, she has been the host of Venn Diagrams, a poetry event at the Torriano Meeting House. Currently one of the organisers of BI+ Online Poets and BI+ London Poets groups.