UPDATE: August 18, 2008
Thanks to everyone who submitted for Issue A of Taiga! The deadline was the 15th, so I'm deleting anything that gets sent to the journal in the meantime. We had a pretty good turn-out for Issue A, and you should see a link to information about that issue, due out this winter, on the sidebar by the end of the month. The list will evolve as musicians send their responses, etc.
Issue T of Taiga is addressed and in envelopes and sitting here waiting to go out in batches! The very last copy was indeed claimed a few days ago, and I don't have any plans to make any more for the time being. Apologies if you missed the boat, but between the general summer-ness of things, and getting ready to move out of the country, I won't have a lot of time to make books until I'm settled again! Contributors, trades, blog reviewers and friends-of-the-management will all be receiving copies over the next few weeks. If you've emailed me about Issue T, I will be responding to those emails this week. I appreciate your patience!
We will be reading for Issue I mid-November. There is no theme planned, and the issue will be available next summer!
UPDATE: AUGUST 1, 2008
A.) There are already only a handful of Ts left to trade! Once these are gone, I will not have time to get more together before I leave the country. I will announce it right here when someone speaks for the very last copy. I am incredibly pleased (and very touched) by the enthusiasm of our friends in the po-world! A big thanks to all of you...
B.) You'll notice some cosmetic changes to match the design of the first issue of Taiga, Issue T-- the blog content overhaul is still to come. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of our progress. Yes, there are feathers involved!
UPDATE: July 31, 2008
Just a small update to say a bigger overhaul of an update is coming very soon! As well as photos and announcements!
The finer points, while you wait:
A.) If you have submitted poetry to the winter issue of Taiga, you will receive a response between today and Sunday. I appreciate your patience. This is one of those moments when we're closer to six weeks than one week in our turnaround time. Trust me: I'm beyond honored to have been included in Duotrope's "swiftest" markets in the last submission period, but I'm afraid we're slipping to just plain ol' "reasonably quick" during this period. Again, that submission deadline is AUGUST 15th. If you send anything after this evening, you will receive a response shortly after the 15th of August.
And if you send unsolicited attachments, your submission WILL be deleted without response.
B.) We are NOT SELLING issues of the first issue of Taiga. We are trading and we are sending review (as in, you review the issue on your personal or professional blog) copies. I repeat, copies of the first issue ARE NOT FOR SALE. Please send an email to taigapoetry at g mail dot com if you have a chapbook or journal you would like to trade. Most of the run is already spoken for, but we never say never!
Please watch this blog over the next few weeks- more updates are on the way!
UPDATE: June 16, 2008
We are open to submissions for the Winter 2009 issue until August 15th. We are especially interested in seeing poems about snow and ice, but we will read/accept all themes. Submissions that do not follow our guidelines will receive no response at all, no matter who you are, so please do take a few minutes to read what we want and you'll get a quick and courteous response this summer! We can't wait to see what you send!
UPDATE: JUNE 4, 2008
We are very pleased to announce that Kristen Orser (Chicago, IL) has been selected as the second poet in our Tundra Chapbook Series, for her collection titled Fall Awake. We are aiming for a November release! Please see her blog for links to recent work- it's pretty stunning stuff...
UPDATE: May 12, 2008
Just a quick announcement: if you are a publisher of quality journals/magazines/chapbooks, and would be interested in trading one-for-one this summer, please email taigapoetry at gmail dot com with details. Please see our list of journals and magazines on this blog to get an idea of what we mean by "quality." Thank you!
UPDATE: May 8, 2008
Hello Taiga-ers. Are you getting excited, yet? We are months away from launching the very first issue of Taiga! If you are on Facebook, search for Taiga under Groups and joins us-- we send monthly updates to all our members, and some of these updates contain highly classified, behind-the-scenes information...
Please also take a long look at our list of journals and magazines. Several of these publications have recently posted/announced new issues. Lots going on this spring!
UPDATE: April 1, 2008
We wish everyone a very merry National Poetry Month! In honor, we have selected our first manuscript for the Tundra Chapbook Series: This is Not a Venn Diagram by Michael Ogletree. We estimate a late fall delivery on this chap; we'll keep you updated in the meantime...
The chapbook queries are accepted on a rolling basis, and we're happy to read and respond to them fairly quickly right now. Please see our Tundra page for details!
UPDATE: March 12, 2008
We have a final list of contributors for the first issue, and we now have a page with a highly selective list of links to like-minded publications. If you have a journal or magazine to suggest, email us at taigapoetry at gmail dot com.
UPDATE: March 6, 2008
We have sent our decisions to all poems sent before our February 29th deadline. As soon as we've heard back from those poets whose work we accepted, we will post the final list of contributors here. We appreciate everyone's contribution and support, and we are excited to put this issue together and get it out there to you!
NB: We have received a few submissions since the 29th, and we are deleting these without responding. So-- if you're one of those poets who took no time to read our guidelines, but come back here looking for an update in a few months, you'll know what happened.
UPDATE: March 1, 2008
The reading period for the Summer Issue has passed. We will announce the reading period for the Winter Issue sometime in the summer months. Responses to all submissions that followed our guidelines (no repeat submissions, no attachments, included a cover letter) will go out by March 15th. We sincerely appreciate your interest in Taiga! Please continue to watch this blog for updates, including how you may order your own copy of our very first issue!
*Please also keep in mind that we are reading submissions to the Tundra Chapbook Series on a rolling basis.
UPDATE: January 28, 2008
We are responding to all submissions sent through this evening. Anything sent after this evening will receive a response after the February 29th deadline. That means you have a month to cram our inbox with your very best poetry and translation work. A month for a response isn't bad at all-- don't forget to report your responses to Duotrope!
UPDATE: January 22, 2008
Hey, friends! Hope everyone's staying warm.
Remember: We Do. Not. Accept. Attachments. And we require cover letters. And we would rather not receive any more than three (3uh!) poems in your submission unless we've specifically asked you (you!) to send more. Believe it or not, as many times as we've spelled it out on this little blog, we are still getting submissions from would-be contributors who are a.) incredibly presumptuous, or b.) selectively illiterate.
Help us help you. We don't want to have a grudge against your submission from the get-go. We don't want to have to delete it without responding. For the most part, you're all doing swell, and we appreciate your efforts! Keep watching the First Issue page for the list of contributors- it's growing!
UPDATE: January 2, 2008
Quick Updates: See our First Issue page for information about the very first issue of Taiga. We will continue to add to the list of contributors as we receive good poetry submissions and get back any lingering Q and As. All deadlines are final, so mind them!
We are also working on a dot-net or dot-com (haven't decided), and an ISSN number. You know. To be 'ficial and all.
UPDATE: December 19th, 2007
Our thanks to everyone who has submitted so far this month. By now we have emailed our decisions on all poetry sent before today. To reiterate the old line- for the most part, these decisions have been hard to make. We have noticed a few recurring instances, however, that are quickly becoming our biggest pet peeves...
- "To whom it may concern" --seriously, wouldn't this annoy you, too? Our names are all over this blog. Rest assured, we ARE the ones reading your work. No one else is really... "concerned" at this point in the game.
- Mentioning that writing poetry is your form of therapy. Editors always have different views about what poetry is and should be, but we aim to publish your highest art, not your low-point meanderings.
-Mystical verse. You "mystical" poets have so far come in with some very different definitions of what "mystical verse" actually IS. Either way, I'm sure there's a place for it, but not between Taiga's covers.
- Sending us more work immediately after we've declined you, unless invited personally to do so. We get an icky feeling when we think we might just be some blog in your list of Bookmarks that you carpet-bomb until we say Mercy!
-And, on that note, not sending a cover letter. Our guidelines specifically request that you do so. Some editors pretend they don't read them until the end, but we will say up-front that we do consider your polite introduction a crucial part of reading your work. We don't care how generic you are- just put our names at the top and yours at the bottom, and try to write something worthwhile in between. We guarantee you, Mr. Too-Good-For-A-Cover-Letter: the work that arrives without one tends to be equally unprofessional. If your point was to let it speak for itself, rest assured- it did.
Just a few more notes: we are truly excited about this first issue because we KNOW it's already pretty good, and we still have a few months to go, yet. Contributors should keep in mind that we are not only looking at whether poems can stand on their own (they should be able to, anyway), but how they fit with the other poems in the issue. We admire most those journals that make a certain kind of sense, cover-to-cover. This means we may have to turn down some great poetry, because in order for poems to work for Taiga, they either have to be so stellar that we have no choice but to accept them, or they have to build perfectly upon certain themes and moods to which you, the potential contributor, are not made privy. We don't mean to be difficult in this regard: just send your absolute best. Also, consult our Essentials list out to the side- that should give you a fair indication of the type of work we'd like the publish.
We want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season. We will notify you of our decisions for work sent today onward soon after the 1st of January.
UPDATE: November 30th, 2007
Tonight marks the end of our first month of submissions. We are trying to get to everyone who submitted over the past three weeks within the next day or two. Enjoy the weeks-long response time while it lasts! Most of these decisions have not been easy to make, but we have no desire to keep you in suspense for longer than necessary.
Important: in the happy event that we accept your work, please respond to our acceptance ASAP. Not getting confirmation from you is a bit like one hand clapping; we can't amuse ourselves with this trick for longer than a week or so.
You still have three full months to send us your work! And we look forward to reading it.
Happy Holidays,
-The Eds
