Guest Editor for Boyne Berries

I am excited to be guest editing the September edition of Boyne Berries, a Meath based magazine that has been running for a few years now. They publish poetry and short prose. Read the rules here and adhere to them like superglue. Line count, word count, format, brief bio.

Send in early, please. I don't want to read them all in one go. It's anonymous so no favoritism! Bribes though are willingly accepted and will do no good at all at all, so they won't. Do me a favour though and if you think I will recognise your pieces for whatever reason, choose something else so I don't have a moral dilemma!

No payment, only glory. But what glory!
Come to the launch in Trim and read your piece.

I googled around and here are some pointers:

• Fresh, powerful and polished - from Thereviewreview
• I want to hear the resonance. If I really love a poem, I read it aloud - from shinejournal
• If I couldn't find a strong image, or a clear sense of emotion, or connection between stanzas, it was easier for me to set the poem aside. Also from Shinejournal.
• It is necessary to spell your poetry correctly. Scrap the cliches. Don't just chop up prose - from Nick Laird
• Is it a So What poem? Excel here 
• Some more pointers from Don Paterson here. Well worth a read

Here are some of the things I hope to find:

• I'd like some poems in form please, sonnets, pantoums, ghazals, rhubaiyats etc. Give it a try.
• I like pieces that make me see something in a new light. 
• Pieces I haven't read before umpteen times.
• Pieces that are multi-layered and take time to unwind.
• Having said that, I don't have much time for writing that is so so obtuse, so obscure, it makes me feel frustrated or plain thick. It shouldn't take a machete to get to the point.
• Pieces that love language, love words, make me fall in love with new words
• Show me something new, show me the feeling, let me picture the image. 
• Leave some gaps for me to fill in myself.
• Pieces that are honest
• Pieces that are sly
• Pieces that catch me out, make me laugh out loud
• Pieces that leave me gulping
• Pieces with a subtle turn
• Pieces that come at me from left field
• Science pieces. Love Science. And Maths
• Pieces that take risks

Submissions are open during the period 1 June - 13 July 2013.