Call for Submissions: "City of the Big Shoulders"--deadline May 1

CALL FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS



City of the Big Shoulders:
An Anthology of Poems About Chicago

Edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave



One of the largest cities in North America, Chicago’s metropolitan area boasts 10 million residents, placing it in the world’s top 25 urban areas by population. A leader in transportation, telecommunications, and finance, Chicago is a city of great architectural significance, ethnic diversity, and cultural wealth. It’s also the birthplace of house music, the Poetry Slam, the skyscraper, chemotherapy, and improvisational comedy.



For these and many other reasons, Chicago has long been the inspiration for and subject of poems (Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago,” Marge Piercy’s “Visiting a Dead Man on a Summer Day,” Ezra Pound’s “Epilogue,” and Maxwell Bodenheim’s “South State Street: Chicago” to name just a few), though no definitive collection currently exists. Edited by Chicago native Ryan G. Van Cleave, City of the Big Shoulders intends to fill this void by gathering the best new poems about Chicago from natives, visitors, friends, and critics of this exciting city.



While any Chicago-related poems are welcome, possible topics might include:



· The Great Chicago Fire

· O’Hare International Airport

· Al Capone

· Lake Michigan

· Grant Park, Linc
oln Park, & Jackson Park

· Chicago Bulls / Bears / White Sox / Cubs / Blackhawks

· Lake Effect snow

· The El

· The “Magnificent Mile”

· Soldier Field

· The Shedd Aquarium

· The Adler Planetarium

· Navy Pier

· The Chicago Tribune

· Chicago pizza

· The Chicago Loop

· The Sears Tower

· Lincoln Park Zoo

· Mayor Richard J. Daley (Sr. & Jr.)

· McCormick Place

· The TV show “ER”

· Barack Obama

· 1893 World Expo

· Louis Armstrong

· Chicago’s Native American background (Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, Fox, Ottawa, Ojibwa)

As part of a commitment to lessen his own environmental impact, the editor requests all submissions be emailed (along with a 3 – 5 line bio) as .rtf or .doc attachments to: (replace (at) with @)

(If you must send in hard copy, email and ask for a snail mail address).

Payment will be in copies. Tentative publication date is early 2010 (by the University of Iowa Press). Previously published submissions are fine if you control the rights.



The deadline for receiving submissions is May 1, 2009.