Mission In spring 2011, Cormorant will inaugurate a new poetry line. We will be publishing four poetry books a year, all to be released in the spring. We seek excellent new collections by poets both established and new; anthologies and reissues by solicitation only.
The kinds of poetry Editor Robyn Sarah will be looking for are best summed up in her statement about the new poetry line: “I look for poetry that is poetry before it is anything else, whatever its subject matter, style or form. I like poems that have lasting resonance, that invite re-reading and reading aloud, that balance sound with sense, and that go beyond mere personal biography or the topicalities of the day to evoke universal human questions and emotions. I am not interested in the trendy. I look for honesty in poetry. I look for language that is original, surprising, playful, yet also disciplined. I look for poems that rise above their own surface “aboutness” to a higher plane, whether of metaphor, myth, or sheer melody—poems that deliver truth beautifully and beauty truthfully. In short, the values I look for in contemporary poetry are the same ones that have allowed great poems to survive centuries and to transcend languages and cultures.”
Submission Guidelines Cormorant’s poetry list is now full through 2012 and into 2013. There will be no open submissions period in 2011. If you have a finished manuscript and would like to send a query only, accompanied by three to five sample poems, you may do so by email during the month of April. Please respect the guidelines below. Queries sent outside of the designated period, and queries that do not follow these guidelines, will not be read.
1. Subject line of your email should read QUERY, plus your name. Your query should include the following:
- a brief description of your manuscript (maximum 200 words)
- two or three sentences about your background (include date and place of birth)
- a note about publications, including publication details of any previous books or chapbooks
- notification if your manuscript is currently submitted elsewhere
- your postal mailing address and telephone number
2. Your sample should consist of the following, sent as a SINGLE email attachment:
- three to five poems (not to exceed six pages), presented as ONE document;
- with PAGE BREAKS inserted between poems,
- document saved in Rich Text Format,
- document saved under the title [YOUR NAME] Sample Poems
Send your query to Robyn Sarah at r.sarah@cormorantbooks.com
If, on the basis of the sample, we would like to see more of your work, you will be contacted by email within four to six weeks of receipt. You will only be contacted if we want to see more work. Please do not send a full manuscript or a longer sample unless you are asked for one. Please send nothing by post unless you are asked.
