Junta: Avant-Garde Latino/a Writing

Call for Submissions for Poetry Anthology (spread the word)

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(the following call for submissions comes from Editor Gabriel Gomez, whose forthcoming poetry collection The Outer Bands won the 2006 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize and will be published by University of Notre Dame Press next year. The judge of the book prize, Valerie Martinez, writes: "The Outer Bands shows us a poet who is stretching the idea of what poetry and self and home and country and allegiance mean. It is, all at once, imagination and documentary, song and declaration. It manages the best of what American poetry is doing, right now, as well as asserts its inherent and unique Latino voice. This manuscript matters, both aesthetically and in terms of the moments and stories it offers up on its provocative 'little altars.'") Looking forward to reading Gabe's book. Read on for anthology submission details:
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
JUNTA: AVANT-GARDE LATINO/A WRITING

Latino/a writers have historically embraced experimentation of form and craft as a way to explore their culture. Even so, much of Latino/a writing, published in the United States, has been limited to particular approaches to subject and style that have been validated by mainstream publishers. Rarely, if ever, does the writing express the immense diversity of aesthetics practiced by artists in the Latino/a community.

In addition, the reality of a U.S. Latino/a Avant-Garde is virtually non-existent in contemporary literary discourse about "Latino/a Art" as well as across the literary spectrum.

Sunstone Press, an independent publisher in Santa Fe, NM is producing an anthology that will be edited by poet Gabriel Gomez. The anthology will feature Avant-Garde poetry and poetics by contemporary Latino/a writers. The tentative publication date is fall 2007.

The anthology will first appear at a conference in Santa Fe, NM, scheduled for October 2007, and will be available nationwide thereafter.

Caveat Emptor

It is not the intention, with this anthology, to categorize and codify certain Latino/a writers as “Avant-Garde” nor to establish any notion of a preferred aesthetic. The objective is to interrogate the very terms "Avant-Garde" and "Latino/a experience" as intersecting locations of poetic practice so as to bring forth work that bears witness to our varying aesthetics as artists and thinkers. The ultimate goal is to encourage both readers and publishers to recognize the breadth of Latino/a writing and thus deepen the public's understanding of the Latino/a experience.

GUIDELINES

Please submit up to five poems. Manuscripts should not exceed 15 pages. Include a cover page with your name and contact information as well as the titles of your
poems. Your name should not appear on the poems themselves.

Writers are asked to submit only electronic versions of the poems. Send as MS Word attachments only. Both MAC and PC platforms are acceptable.

Submit work to junta.anthology@yahoo.com

Writers whose work is accepted for the anthology will be asked to write a poetics statement no longer than 750 words.

DEADLINE

All manuscripts submitted by January 10, 2007 will be considered. Contributors will receive two copies of the book upon publication