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 10 – will be accepted beginning July 24 , 2023 until September 8, 2023.
Shel Silverstein, Dennis Lee, A.A. Milne. I’ve loved their poems for years. Pick up your copy of Bubblegum Delicious or Where the Sidewalk Ends and give ’em a another read.
If we want young people to read poetry as adults, we need to get them hooked on poetry as kids and write fresh work for them. Find your inner child and send us those fun, humourous, and memorable pieces.
Poems for Kids
We accept poetry, Creative Non-fiction (CNF), and art.
Poetry/CNF
All work should reflect the theme of poetry aimed at young readers. If you’re not sure, please send it in anyway. We’d love to read your work. Keep CNF to around 1000 words or so, but we’re easy.
Art
All art should reflect the chosen theme: 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 Poems should be previously unpublished.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.
- 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.
We are not interested in any work created by artificial intelligence (AI).
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