FROM THE EDITORS – CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
FOR A SPECIAL POETRY ISSUE:
The Classical Outlook 99.3
In June 2023, the American poet, translator, and critic A.E. Stallings was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry. Translator of Lucretius, Hesiod, and many modern Greek poets, Stallings is one of many Anglophone poets whose work directly engages with the ancient Mediterranean world. A few such poets are 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips, translator of Sophocles’s Philoctetes; Nobel laureates Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, and Louise Glück; Stallings’s predecessor as Oxford Professor of Poetry, Alice Oswald; American poet-translators Charles Martin and Susan McLean; Irish poet Michael Longley; British poets Thom Gunn, Tony Harrison, and Carol Ann Duffy. Among the readers of The Classical Outlook are many teachers, translators, and lovers of Greek and Latin poetry – some whose work we know and many whose work we look forward to discovering.
The Editors of The Classical Outlook are planning a special issue devoted to poetry, which will be published in the fall of 2024.
We seek the following submissions:
1) Original verse poems in English that engage – whether through their form, their content, or both – with classical poetry, its reception, or any other aspect of the ancient Mediterranean world. Submissions should, in general, not exceed fifty lines.
- We would also welcome an optional feature: an accompanying brief essay (e.g., an introduction or postlude of 250 to 500 words) that unpacks the inspiration or provenance of the poem(s). See, for example, Jehanne Dubrow’s poem, “Dear Little Red Dog –,” which is followed by a postlude in CO 98.3.
2) Essays (2,000-5,000 words) reflecting on the use of poetry in the classroom:
- What modern poems with classical themes do you assign to students?
- Why do you work with these poems? In what context, and to what end?
- How and why do you write poems with classical motifs or allusions?
- What is the pedagogical value of reading and writing poetry in the context of classical studies?
3) Scholarly articles (2,000-5,000 words) that analyze or appreciate poetry with classical themes or that present case studies of classical reception are also welcome.
Please submit your poem(s) and your brief essay(s) as a Word document to Philip Walsh, Editor of The Classical Outlook (outlook@aclclassics.org). Essays of 2,000-5,000 words should also be submitted as a Word document to the Editor. Any inquiries or clarifying questions should be directed to the Editor. The deadline for submission of all poems and essays is Friday, February 2, 2024.
Please put “CO 99.3 - Poetry Issue” in the subject line of your email submission. Consistent with CO’s standards and practices, poems and brief essays will not be reviewed anonymously. Essays of 2,000-5,000 words, however, will undergo anonymous peer review.
