Pocketry

the home of unheard voices

Author: Indrani Perera

  • The Secret To Getting Published

    The Secret To Getting Published

    Follow the submission guidelines to a tee. For a small journal Like Pocketry it will be the difference between getting published and knocked back. For larger journals I suspect they won’t even look at your work if you haven’t bothered to take the time to read their submission guidelines and follow them. If you can’t be bothered to do your homework, why should they bother to read and then publish your poems?

    A publisher creates submission guidelines to streamline the task of assembling a journal. As you can imagine, a lot of work goes into creating a journal. When you follow the guidelines you make the editor’s job of choosing you easy. With hundreds of submissions and many pieces to publish there simply isn’t time to go back and forth with every contributor.

    Pay attention to simple things like document type, font type and size as well as requirements for contact details, author bio, photograph size and format. Get the details right and then your killer poem will shine.

  • Winner of the 2020 Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets

    Winner of the 2020 Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets

    Last night an online awards ceremony was held for the inaugural Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets. It was wonderful to see so many of the entrants at the ceremony and ‘meet’ them in person so to speak. Australian poet, Carolyn Masel, who will mentor the winner was also there and gave a lovely speech.

    The standard of the entries was high and I have to thank all the amazing poets who were brave enough to send in their work. It takes courage to share your poetry with other people, more so when you are exposing yourself to rejection. There as a lot of promise in the submitted poems and it was an honour to read poets at the start of their career.

    ~

    Pocketry is pleased to announce Sophia Riozzi as the 2020 Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets winner with her collection, The Year of the Double Autumn.

    Sophia’s collection will be published in an instant book by Pocketry in early 2021 and will be available to purchase in Pocketry’s online shop.

    There were three highly commended entries: Lorikeets by Steph Amir, Stray Perceptions by Melissa Favasuli and Pandemic 575: A Collection of Haiku for the Year 2020 by Megan Riedl.

    ~

    Thank you to all the poets who submitted their entries for the inaugural Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets. I was pleased to see so many emerging poets writing to such a high standard. The future of poetry is safe in your hands!

  • Award Ceremony for the Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets

    Award Ceremony for the Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets

    You are cordially invited to attend the awards ceremony for the inaugural Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets. Entries have come in from all around Australia and the standard was incredibly high.

    Come along to find out just who will win mentorship with Australian poet Carolyn and publication of their poetry in an instant book.

    The Pocketry Prize For Unpublished Poets Awards Ceremony  

    6.30pm (AEDT)

    Wednesday 25th November 2020

    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83319451452

  • All The Words

    All The Words

    Submissions for Issue two of the Pocketry Almanack have now closed and I am busy reading them all with great pleasure.

    Poets and artists from Europe, the Americas and Australia have submitted their work for consideration.

    It’s wonderful to know that poetry is alive and well and that there are still so many poets willing to send in their writing. It takes a brave soul to share their vulnerable self with the rest of the world. I thank all the submitters from the bottom of my heart for trusting their work to the Almanack.

    The hard part is choosing which ones to include when I have so many favourites. I’m beginning to regret the pocket-size of the Almanack. If only it were bigger, then I would be able to publish so many more poets!

  • Speaking in Tongues

    Speaking in Tongues

    Did you know that as well as publishing emerging and aspiring poets, Pocketry also publishes poems in languages other than English?

    I think it’s unfair to limit or restrict access to publication in literary journals to only those who can speak a particular language. As if being proficient in English somehow makes you a better poet. As if mastery of this tongue allows you entrance into the hallowed halls of literature. As if you only get to the part of the converstaion if you speak English.

    I want to read poems in other languages even if I can’t understand them. Puzzle over the way foreign letters twist and tumble across the page. Read meaning into the lines of text flowing down and down and down. Find words that look familiar in amongst the strangers.

    I know, I only speak English and this post is in English but if you know poets who write in other languages, please tell them about the Pocketry Almanack. Their poems are welcome here.

  • Keep It Short

    Keep It Short

    The Almanack is tiny.

    It measures 7.5 x 10.5 cm ( 3″ x 4″).

    And there are only 8 pages which includes the contents on the cover.

    All this is to say, keep your poems for the Almanack short.

    A maximum length of 18 lines (including lines breaks) and a maximum width per line of 45 characters (including spaces).

    Happy creating!

  • It’s Raw

    It’s Raw

    Pocketry publishes work from aspiring and emerging poets who haven’t yet been published in a literary journal. The poems between the pages of a Pocketry Almanack come from poets who are still learning their craft. They are writing and editing. Sending out their stuff to journals and getting rejected. But they keep trying because they want to share their words with the rest of the world.

    As a result, the poems published in a Pocketry Alamanack vary wildly in quality and subject matter from the ordinary to the sublime (and who’s to say ordinary cannot be sublime if done well?). Our aim is to showcase the poems and poets who aren’t getting any exposure. Everyone’s voice deserves to be heard.

  • A Pocketry Portmanteau

    A Pocketry Portmanteau

    What’s in a name? As Shakespeare once famously said, ‘A rose by any other name would sell as sweet.’ But would a pocket-sized, poetry almanack with a different name be as good? One certainly hopes so as I’ve just had to change the name of this web site and the almanack.

    My original name for this site was Pocket Poetry. It fit the size of the almanack (super tiny) and it’s content (poetry) perfectly. It had a nice ring to it and even alliterated. I went ahead full steam and created the website, bought the domain name and set up the Instagram account. And after I’d done all that hard work I remembered that the Australian publisher Ginninderra Press has an imprint of chapbooks called Pocket Poets. I felt a little foolish.

    I toyed with the idea of keeping the name Pocket Poetry (It was soooo good! And I’d done all that hard work.) but it just didn’t sit right. I felt like I was treading on Ginninderra Press’ toes and I didn’t want to do that. Surely I could come up with something else?

    Armed with a dictionary and the excellent Rhyme Zone site I went a word hunting. Some of the ideas were Portable Poetry, Pint-Sized Poetry, Petite Poetry. None were really working. I’d half decided to go with portable as it was the best of the bunch. And then I was talking to my husband about it and instead of saying pocket poetry I said pocketry. Pocketry. Hmmm, that’s got a nice ring to is, doesn’t it? And it’s not too close to Pocket Poets. The Pocketry Almanack. Why, yes. I think that will do nicely.

    After some tense moments making sure Ginninderra Press were on board with the new name and purchasing the domain, it was all systems go.

    So that’s the story of how I went from Pocket Poetry to Pocketry which is a smush of the two words or to use the fancy name, a portmanteau. Or in this case a poetry portmanteau.

  • Advice for Aspiring Poets

    Advice for Aspiring Poets

    Poetry is a beautiful form of writing with many different styles to choose from. You can choose one of the traditional styles or go your own way with free verse. Reasons for writing poetry vary. For many people it is a way of expressing and processing their thoughts and emotions on the page. Some brave souls choose to share their experiences with a wider audience.

    For those souls wanting their poetry to reach a wider audience, here are a few tips for getting your words out there and improving your writing.

    1.  Write as often as you can. It may sound like a no-brainer but if you’re not writing regularly, you can’t improve. Like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. Some folks write every day, others every week. Figure out what works best for you and go for it.

    2.  Read, read, read. Read lots of poetry. Devour words. Become a fan. Discover what you like. Figure out what you’d like to achieve.

    3.  There are so many workshops out there with amazing poets. Go and do one.

    4. Once you’ve done your workshop, join a writer’s group. Having other poets comment on your work is a wonderful thing. If there isn’t one near you, start one with the other people in your writing class.

    5.  Attend poetry open mics. It’s a wonderfully supportive and welcoming scene.

    6.  If you want people to buy and read your work you must return the favour and read and buy other poets’ work.

    Good Luck!

  • Creating a Prototype

    Creating a Prototype

    Before opening the Pocketry Almanack for submissions, I had to create a prototype of the journal to discover exactly what was needed from contributors.

    First I had to figure out how to create an instant book and then how to create a template that could edited, printed and reproduced easily. In keeping with the instant book theme, I was looking for something that could be printed and assembled quickly.

    Once that was done came the fun part of playing with fonts and figuring out the style of the little booklets. The word Almanack conjures up olden days so I went with a font style similar to what was around in the 1700s.

    To get a feel for the end product I found some of my short poems and use the Pocketry logo for the back page.

    I then printed it out and assembled it. The whole process only took a couple of days of solid work. I was a woman obsessed!