ShaneSchick.com Twitter: @shaneschick
Paddler Press is thrilled to welcome Shane Schick as our guest editor for our 9th volume.
Shane Schick is a writer based in Whitby, Ont, where he lives with his wife and three children. His poems have appeared in literary journals across Canada (including Paddler Press!), the U.S., the U.K. and Africa. He recently won first place in poetry in the Skugog Arts ekphrastic writing competition. Later this year Shane will be appearing on the podcast ‘Poetry, Not PowerPoint,‘ and he has previously been interviewed or featured on My (Small Press) Writing Day, Cardigan Press and the YouTube series How To Read Poetry. When he’s not writing poetry, Shane is focused on content marketing and journalism, where his career has included stints as a columnist with the Globe and Mail and more recently the founder of 360 Magazine.
Submission Guidelines
Short Version
- Up to 5 poems in either .docx or PDF
- Up to 3 pieces of art (high res jpeg with specs: size, media)
- name your attachment
- last name – submission
- e.g., Robertson – Poetry or
- e.g., Robertson – Art
- Include a short 3rd-person bio
- send it to: paddler@canoeideas.ca
- follow us on Twitter (you don’t have to, but it would be nice)
Submissions for Volume 9 – Grace Notes will be accepted beginning April 17, 2023 until June 8, 2023.
Grace Notes
In musical notation, grace notes are embellishments to the main composition and are considered non-essential. In life, however, we need grace — that spirit of goodwill and mercy towards one another — more than ever before.
This issue of Paddler Press asks you to write your own “grace notes” in the form of poetry, fiction and CNF. Where have you found grace in your life? Where do you see the opportunity to offer it to others? How does grace change us, allow us to tap into the power of the divine and ultimately help us become more human and live in harmony?
We accept poetry, Creative Non-fiction (CNF), art, and for this issue, fiction.
Poetry/CNF
All work should reflect the theme of Grace Notes as you interpret it. If you’re not sure, please send it in anyway. We’d love to read your work. Keep CNF and fiction to around 1000 words or so, but we’re easy.
Art
All art should reflect the theme of Grace Notes: painting, sketches, mixed media, photography, etc… we’d like to see it all. Please send a short description of your work including dimensions and materials used.
Submission Guidelines
Full Version
Submission guidelines are pretty straightforward. Please read, Especially #2.
- Please submit up to five original poems in one .docx or PDF file attached to your email. We are looking for poems that are not overly long, and would also enjoy and encourage micro-poetry. If you’re not sure, send it along anyway. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but let us know if your work is picked up elsewhere (and huge congratulations!). Poems should be previously unpublished. Poems appearing on your personal blog or social media are fine, though we’d love to be able to share brand new works with the world. Include a third-person bio of 75 words or so. Please limit your recent publications to three or four. (Seriously, some lists we’re receiving are 10+ publications long.) Include social media handles if you’d like and we’ll support you online. Send your work to paddler@canoeideas.ca.
- Please use last name – submission as the subject and the name of your document. This makes finding your work in our downloads folder much easier. Really. Please. I beg of you. Why won’t people do this?
- Please submit up to three pieces of original art. Send high quality jpeg images of your art to paddler@canoeideas.ca. Please include media (digital image, mixed media, acrylic, etc) along with sizing.
- Please use last name-art as the submission and the name of your document.
I will do my very best to get back to you as soon as I can. If you don’t hear from me within a month after submitting, give me a shout. Life gets busy and this isn’t my regular gig.
Unfortunately, due to prohibitive costs, we are unable to provide complimentary copies to contributors. Printed copies will be offered at cost, should contributors choose. Sections of poems may also be published online.
All rights to poems will return to you after publication. All future use will be credited to the author. If your poem is published (say, in an anthology or your own collection) please credit us as the original publisher.
Don’t bother sending any work of a sexual nature or that promotes any kind of hate. It will be deleted. Any work that requires a content warning or trigger warning will not fit in with this publication. We encourage writers at any stage of their journey to submit. Never been published before? Hit us up. Got a publication resume that is pages long? Well done, and let’s add to it.
Work by any writer who is known to be abusive towards editors (and, well, anyone) will have their submissions deleted. You know who your are, yet you keep sending us work. Please stop.
I make mistakes, so bear with me on this journey. This venture is a labour of love. I can’t accept everything that is submitted so please don’t think that a rejection is a reflection of your work.
Sincerely,
Deryck N. Robertson,
EIC of Paddler Press paddler@canoeideas.ca