The Shroud Underground

Submissions Call for Shroud Publishing Poetry Anthology – The Terror of Miskatonic Falls

When the snows fell hard this past year, the entire Northeast buckled down for a long, cold winter. Among the states affected most was Massachusetts, and one of the places hit worst was a town located in its northeast region - a small hamlet named Miskatonic Falls. Situated inside the Miskatonic Valley Region, there's only one way in and out. Both were blocked off by heavy snows.

With few connections to neighboring towns - all of which are ten miles away in either direction - with power and telephone lines down, Miskatonic Falls had been cut off from the outside world for more than a month when the Miskatonic County Police Department received a garbled call from a pay phone at the town's only diner. The call consisted of bursts of static, whistles, unearthly cries, and one whispered phrase “…itum insania…ventum.” Scholars at nearby Miskatonic University identified it as Latin, roughly translated as: “…the walking madness…has come.”

Investigators arrive to find an empty town. There are signs of violence, mayhem, bloodshed…even perversion and sadism....but everyone has vanished, without a trace. The mystery deepens when repeated references to the "long man" appear, in abandoned diaries, recovered emails and cell-phone texts, and in graffiti on walls that read: “BEHOLD! THE LONG MAN COMETH!"

What has happened to the people of Miskatonic Falls? What menace has wiped them off the Earth? Who is the “long man”, and what does “…the walking madness” mean? The world may never know. There are no answers, only questions…and this anthology.

What are we looking for? Poetry, between 8 - 34 lines. Any style is acceptable, HOWEVER: consider the poem’s rhythm and clarity. Avoid “word play.” The poem must make sense and have narrative qualities. Also, with rhyming poems: structure always makes it better. Think sonnets.

Subject: the town’s dissolution into madness and disappearance, but as it relates to its townspeople. Husbands, wives. Lovers, co-workers. Fellow students, shopkeepers, priests and constables. As the end approached, what did they think? Feel? Experience? Fear? Hate? Think “Spoon River Anthology”, by Edward Lee Masters. However, don’t mimic its style - written in the ‘30s as a collection of tombstone epitaphs. Absorb its essence – people speaking beyond the grave - and apply it the anthology’s situation.

We don’t want answers or conclusions. Vague references are fine, but we only want to know what their lives were like as the end drew near. That having been said, for further clarification, the anthology will be split into three “cantos” (sections, chapters), submissions depending:

Canto I: Ventum Veni, The Madness Comes
Canto II: Ventum Dilato, The Madness Spreads
Canto III: Ventum Voro Nos, The Madness Consumes

Important things: We want first print rights to your poem. After publication, the rights revert to you. No reprints. New poems only, please. Multiple submissions are allowed, but only up to three at any one time. The Terror of Miskatonic Falls will be published as a trade paperback.

What you get: 1 cent a word and a contributor’s copy. The paperback copy of the book will be sent to you upon or shortly after the book’s official release date. Payment is based on final word count from the final edited copy of the poem, so once your poem is ready for print, payment will be sent to you via either check or Paypal.

What to send to us: Please send your poem(s) in standard manuscript format: Courier 12pt, double-spaced, with any italicized words underlined. Also include your name and contact information on the first page as well as your name in the upper right corner of any subsequent pages. Don’t forget to also number your pages. Please follow these guidelines to the letter. Submissions that don’t will be automatically rejected.

Where to send it: send all submissions as .doc or .rtf files via email to kevin@shroudmagazine.com with the words “Terror of Miskatonic Falls Submission” in the subject line.

When to send it by: Reading period starts right away and ends when full. You will be notified within two months of your submission regarding acceptance, possibly sooner.

Sounds good, Kev.

I'll be submitting soon. Sounds like a fun and interesting idea.

Very good. Will be looking for it.

8 line minimum? D'oh! No haiku then. It's the only poetry I write.

Yeah, sorry. No Haiku for now. Depending on how it fills up, what shape it takes, I may open it up for that, too.

Cool. I'll check back just in case.

I imagine we will. In fact - try me. I said 8-34 lines, but I didn't say NO Haiku. Give it to me, baby.


Uhh. I mean the poem.

I'm pretty new to subbing poetry, so I was wondering if you could clear a few things up for me (as most of the poetry submission guides I've found online are rather archaic).

First, what exactly is supposed to go in the upper right-hand corner? Word count, line count, or both? And is the word count to the nearest ten or hundred words?

Second, is the whole body of the poem supposed to be centered?

Finally, do you want a page number on the first page as well as the subsequent pages (probably a stupid question given my experience with fiction subs, but I figured it would be a good idea to ask just in case).

I've already got one hot off the presses and ready to go, and I'm planning on throwing two more onto the fire as well.

William Shunn's guidelines are always the best bet, and it's the format I've been using for my poems:

http://www.shunn.net/format/poem.html

Thanks for the link--I didn't know Shunn had a poetry section up. I think I'll have to wait until I get some more poems done to sub though. After re-reading the guidelines, my poem really doesn't fit the whole "speaking from beyond the grave" thing very well considering it's written in present tense.

Well, don't forget - these are the people's voices - as the town is falling a part - so it's more important that the poem fits into one of the cantos, thematically. Present tense would work, if the above criteria is met.

Ah well, I sent it to you, albeit a bit tentatively. Primarily because it might fit well into the third section when things have already presumably gone pretty much to hell.

In order to create the best poetry anthology we possibly can, after several discussions with Shroud Editor Tim Deal, we've decided to raise the pay rate of the anthology from 1 cent per word to $5 per poem. This meets a professional rate of pay, as defined by the Horror Writers Association: http://www.horror.org/memrule.htm - #13 "Professional rates" are defined in this case as no less than 25 cents (25¢) per line or $5 for each poem". We at Shroud understand that quality product demands quality returns, and we also know how many writers are dedicated towards working on eligibility for full HWA membership. Payment within 30 days after publication.

Kevin, this is the exact reason I enjoy promoting and supporting the hell out of you guys.

Each and every month you all go out of your way to support all of us.

I'm just glad I can help give that back in the form of spreading the word, like a virus!

Stay Scary!

-Brian Hardin II
www.ZombieMall.com

KevinLucia wrote:I imagine we will. In fact - try me. I said 8-34 lines, but I didn't say NO Haiku. Give it to me, baby.


Uhh. I mean the poem.

Next question: Since haiku are so short, how many do you want in a submission?