blue skies poetry

House of Blue Skies – Call for Submissions

Announcing a call for submissions for new anthology Home and Away – a sequel to the bestselling Writing the Land: Alberta Through its Poets, first published in 2007 and now in its third printing.

House of Blue Skies is seeking poems by Alberta and Alberta-based writers that explore our complex relationship with working on, living with, exploiting and protecting our land and our home.

Our land and its resources have shaped and continue to influence the history, culture, and economy of Alberta. From the route to the Klondike to the first oil wells to the building of the infamous Alaska Highway, from the sugar beet fields in the south to the Peace Country “bread basket” of wheat in the Dirty 30’s, the bounty of the land has inspired and wooed, provided great riches and broken our spirits, driven our history with cycles of boom and bust, immigration, settlement and emigration.

We are looking for poems by the people who define these stories of “Home and Away”.

From the soldiers overseas or the families waiting here at home; from the consultants and geologists who explore the foothills of the Rockies or the trappers who work those same mountains; from urbanites who find themselves working in a small town (or vice versa); from the families who have farmed their land for a few generations to the migrant workers who “come from away” and stay only as long as there is a paycheque; from the amazing mosaic of our immigrants over the decades to our enduring First Nations peoples – our sense of place and home define who we are.

How are we shaped by what we do and where we live? How does what we do effect our sense of place? What is home – is it where you live to earn a living… or is it where you are from? Can you go back home after years of being away? Does the landscape get in under your skin – do you carry it with you when you go? How do the seasons play a role in our lifestyles and our choices?

Categories may include the armed forces, farming, the oilpatch, forestry, silviculture, immigration, emigration, life on and off the Reserve, home as compass, homesickness, wanderlust… and anything else conjured by the words “Home and Away”.

As with our previous venture, Angela Kublik’s blue skies poetry e-zine will feature work by our selected poets on the theme of “Home & Away” throughout the month of September 2009. The poems selected will be included in an anthology to be released in the fall 2009. Book launches will be held in various locations throughout Alberta. Each contributor will receive two copies of the anthology.

To submit your work, email 1-3 poems, 50 lines maximum each, with “Home & Away” in the subject line, to akublik@blueskiespoetry.ca. Please include a short biographical note, as well as your mailing address and home phone number. Work should not be previously published or submitted elsewhere. Submission deadline is March 31, 2009.

For those of you who do not live in Alberta permanently, we trust that you will enjoy reading the work that results from this project.

Angela Kublik and Dymphny Dronyk

Publishers, House of Blue Skies
Editors, “Home & Away” Project
blueskiespoetry.ca

blue skies welcomes regular submissions and will continue to publish work from across Canada and internationally throughout 2009.

Filed under: Home & Away, News by akublik Date 1 January, 2009