Rattle
RATTLE: Poetry for the 21st Century

Submission
Guidelines

• RATTLE publishes poetry, translations, reviews, essays, and interviews.
• Submissions open year-round.
• RATTLE does not accept previously published work.
• Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but you must notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.

Poems
We like poems of any length. Try to send several poems as opposed to a single piece. We're looking for poems that move us, pieces that might make us laugh or cry, or teach us something new. Though most of the poems that we publish are free verse, that doesn't mean we don't like traditional forms -- meter and rhyme are simply harder to do well. If you're confident in your sonnet, send it. We read a lot of poems, and only those that are unique, insightful, and musical stand out. Since our issues include about 80-100 pages of poetry, one of the main things we're looking for is diversity; we have enough room to be eclectic, and we plan on using it.

Each issue of RATTLE contains about 80 pages of poetry in our regular section, and nearly all of it comes from unsolicited submissions. Your submissions keep us going, and we always appreciate them.

Tributes

Every issue of RATTLE gathers poems from a specific ethnic, vocational, or social group, comprising a special section of about 20 pages. We're currently seeking submissions from nurse poets for our Winter 2007 issue. We want poems written by nurses -- they don't have to be about nurses. If you're a nurse, submit 3-5 poems by August 1st, 2007. And as always, please spread the word.

We're also seeking essays about the relationship between nursing and/or healthcare and poetry -- why are there so many nurse-poets? How does working in this career affect your writing? Does poetry affect how you do your job? If you can write an essay that encompasses both nurses and poetry, we're interested. Feel free to query first by email.

Future tributes will focus on: Visaul Poetry, Nordic Poets (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark), Cowboy Poets, and African-American Poets -- likely in that order.

For more information on upcoming tributes and special guidelines, see our call for submissions page.

Reviews
Note that we no longer publish print reviews. Due to the overwhelming success of the new E-Reviews section of our website, we've decided to use the print reviews space to publish more poetry. From now on, reviews will only appear online. Please refer to the E-Review section for complete guidelines, but in general, anything goes--reviews may be any length, on any book, chapbook or anthology relating to poetry. Payment for an E-Review is one copy of a forthcoming print issue of RATTLE.

Required Information

If possible place this information on each piece submitted:

Name, Mailing Address, Phone Number, Email address

In addition send a short bio of the author. Your bio should tell us who you are and why you love poetry. Our bios section is something that makes issues of RATTLE unique, and many say it's as fun to read as the poetry itself. Bios should be in the first person, and follow the format of this sample:

Erik Campbell: "One afternoon in the summer of 1994 I was driving to work and I heard Garrison Keillor read Stephen Dunn's poem "Tenderness" on The Writer's Almanac. After he finished the poem I pulled my car over and sat for some time. I had to. That is why I write poems. I want to make somebody else late for work." (email address goes here at the end if you'd like it included)

Bios in this form are only needed upon acceptance--it doesn't have to be included with each submission, though we would enjoy it.

Payment
Payment is two copies of the issue in which your work appears. Contributors also may preorder additional copies at a discounted rate.

Rights
All rights revert to the authors on publication. To get technical, we require First North American Serial Rights, meaning we want to be the first magazine in North America to publish your poem. If the poems have appeared in a book, that's fine. They may have been posted online to blogs or message boards, as well, but online magazines still count as magazines. If you submitted them work, and they published it, then we don't want those poems.

Though authors do retain all rights to their work, we post everything we publish on the back-issues section of the website six months after print publication, unless you request them removed (though no one ever has).

Response Time
Response times vary, but we can generally make a decision within 4-8 weeks. If you haven't heard back from us in awhile, feel free to query by email, as submissions have been known to get lost in the mail, and more often in cyberspace.