The general idea with Mediterranean Poetry is to publish poetry/prose (online) inspired in some way or another by the Mediterranean world. Not words depicting a tea salon in London, the mountains in northern Sweden, the Savannah in Africa, a jazz club in New York, a love affair in Tokyo, a hymn to this or that religion, political opinions or relations/situations/conversations that in no way tells us anything about the environment. The background has to be the Famous Blue and its surroundings!
This site is devoted to the Mediterranean world and impressions depicting not necessarily only the sometimes almost painfully beautiful side of this world. Still, your submission has to evoke some sense of citrus, cicadas, mountains, sea, kisses under an olive tree, conversations in a café, Apollo’s vaguely heard lyre, the smell of freshly brewed coffee … well, almost any color that has been used on the canvas since Homer and his heirs!
(Yes, we admit, we are strongly colored and inspired by the history, mythology, and poetry of the ancient Greek, and Roman world here at Mediterranean Poetry ;-)
WHAT TO SEND
If you would like to contribute with some poems or prose poetry (max 1,000 words) that you find – in some way or the other – illustrate your impression of the Mediterranean world and in line with our IDEA, please send us your words in English, a shorter bio and a photo* of you and your submission will soon be considered!
*The photo will be cropped to a small, square size, 95×95 px – a “thumbnail” to illustrate the bio.
Submission address: submit@odyssey.pm
… and NOT TO SEND
Every week we receive poetry inspired by Asian philosophy or some religious beliefs, writings depicting climate change, conflicts in the world, and immigrants’ destinies. Or poems that paint a love story just anywhere (alas, not set in the Mediterranean world) or even writings depicting something the poet hates – his neighboring country, the political system, his … Sent to us despite our guidelines and the possibility to browse our site with 677 poets/writers to have a sense of what we are looking for! Consequently, we must say NO to contributors who send poetry without bearing on our IDEA.*
The poetry submitted can, of course, be both touching and very important. Not the least when the writing paints the destiny of the victims in saddening conflicts around the world and the hardships of immigrants with sometimes fatal endings. STILL – Mediterranean Poetry is not the arena for those images. There are many other sites/magazines that cover such important themes.
*We also decline submissions from time to time even though they paint the Mediterranean world and then often because the poetry does not have the colors we are searching for.
DONATION
From the first of January 2024, we ask for a small donation (3-10 Euros, your choice) for all new submissions IF AND WHEN we decide to publish the submission.
PLEASE DO NOT DONATE ANYTHING BEFORE WE INFORM YOU THAT WE HAVE PUBLISHED YOUR WORDS!
The donation is then paid via this L I N K if you think a donation to keep this ship afloat is reasonable! The cost of running this enterprise with solely private means has become a challenge and may eventually end this Odyssey somewhere between Scylla and Charybdis if no measure is taken …
PLEASE NOTICE that we (Mediterranean Poetry) as recipients can ONLY see the donor’s name, email address, and possible message from you – the donor. Other information that PayPal and banks require for everyone’s safety and legislation, we cannot control but cannot see either!
COPYRIGHT
Previous publication is not an issue (a problem for us), the only consideration is that any possible publisher, translator, or photographer with copyrights won’t object to the “material” (your words, your photo) being highlighted at our site! PLEASE NOTICE that Mediterranean Poetry never owns the copyright to your submission, your words, your poetry!
FORMAT
As for the format, which sometimes is asked for, our answer is: Send us your poem/prose directly in your mail or a Word file, Google Docs, odt, or plain text file. We are not keen on locked PDF files, photos with text from printed books, or handwritten manuscripts though – this will mean a lot of work for us if we choose to highlight such submissions.
Those we choose to “bring on board” must know that we can not always reproduce the formatting of the original since the words and line breaks are coded in HTML and the column reserved for the poetry is not very wide. (A column that becomes even narrower in the mobile version.) So for poets who write rather long lines before pondering if it is the right moment to press “Enter” or use endless indents (until the line jumps below due to the limited width), it may be somewhat disappointing to see the outcome at Mediterranean Poetry!
ADVERTISING
If we choose to publish your words you may do some free advertising for one of your books – poetry or prose preferably with some bearing on the Mediterranean world. We place a picture (300×450 px) of your book cover in the right column* of Mediterranean Poetry (this website) and link that to the web address of your choice – a publisher who sells your book or maybe Amazon or your website from where you distribute your book.
*Just below your post in the mobile version.