Deadline: January 15th, 2025
Payment: US 5¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $5, maximum $25
Theme: Speculative Poetry dealing with: Immortality
Eye to the Telescope 59, Immortality, will be edited by C. C. Rayne.
What does it mean to be immortal? How could such a thing even be possible – and what costs might it require? What are the benefits, and the downsides? As an immortal, what truths or lies about our lives might you come to understand?
As science develops at a breakneck pace, we watch people grasp for shreds of immortality in the real world. Cryonic freezing of corpses for resurrection; uploading of consciousness and thought patterns into artificial intelligence; cloning and genetic engineering; transplants and artificial body parts. Every day, we innovate new ways to extend our lifespans and fight back against the inevitable tide of death. In the world of fantasy and pop culture, immortality takes on even more flavors. Many supernatural beings – ghosts, vampires, zombies, fae – are described as having unnaturally long lifespans, or being impervious or immune to the effects of time. Sometimes, such a state exacts a price: the drinking of blood, the murder of innocents, the sacrifice of a soul. Sometimes, it allows for incredible things: knowledge and happiness and hope that extends across a blissful eternity. Immortality can be a gift, or it can be a curse. It can grant the bearer(s) wisdom, or foolishness – or both.
Immortality, as a concept, doesn’t have a clear-cut definition. This ambiguity is a gift, and I encourage you to play with it. Does immortality mean not aging? Not being hurt? Not dying at all? Only dying under certain conditions? Can a person be immortal? A relationship? A society? A concept? What happens to all these things as time passes by? How do we record ourselves and preserve our legacies; how do memories get twisted and warped throughout the years? What happens if death was only for the many, or only for the few? What happens in a world without death at all?
I want your myriad of millennia and your tiny split-second moments; your loneliness and your connection; your empathy and your frustrations; your questions and your dreams. Go big, or go small, or go both at the same time. Approach immortality from a strange and unusual angle. Reframe it for me like a centuries-old painting. Twist it through the lens of science fiction or fantasy or horror or something else entirely. Make me wonder. Make me question. Make me excited. Make me afraid.
Submission Guidelines
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
- Use the form at https://bit.ly/SFPAettt59 to submit.
- Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain).
- Inquiries only to [email protected] with “ETTT” in the subject line.
- Deadline: January 15, 2026. The issue will appear on February 15, 2026.
Payment and rights
- Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 5¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $5, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
- The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks.
- Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.
Who can submit?
Any human writing speculative poetry. Please no AI-generated works or AI-human collaborations. Note SFPA’s new AI policy: https://sfpoetry.com/ai-statement.html
What is Speculative Poetry?
Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.
A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable to all forms of speculative poetry.
Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):
timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/08/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1-definition/
.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/15/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2-history/
What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)?
As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”
See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining.
Via: Eye to the Telescope Magazine.
