A Note from Eric Steineger, Senior Poetry Editor of The Citron Review and board member of The Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara

 

On October 15, 2014, The Citron Review will open submissions for its first contest and theme for a genre.. We’re excited to try something new while still maintaining our high editorial standards. We want to let you know what we’re doing now, so you have time to entertain the possibilities.

In essence, nothing changes. We are devoted to publishing the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and art. We still labor over your excellent work, over house renovations and parental concerns, and over the disappearance of our favorite stout from the local pub. We’re still the same quirky bunch.

The Summer 2015 poetry selections will be in honor of Carl Sandburg. Sandburg is a national icon — a poet who lived his life with integrity and concern for humankind. This was a poet who spent twenty years in Chicago — “…Shoveling / Wrecking / Planning…” before daring to write about it. This was a poet who saw Abraham Lincoln as both “…steel and velvet… who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.” Sandburg read before Congress, championed civil rights before it was cool, and retired to a goat farm in Flat Rock, North Carolina with his wife, Lillian.

This is a contest to write poems in the spirit of Sandburg. There is an entry fee of $10. Send us three to five poems that you feel channel his spirit. Our normal line limits (30 lines per poem) still apply. Poems can be submitted in a single document or uploaded separately. 

The winner will receive $250, publication and mention in The Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara newsletter. Three other finalists will receive publication alongside the winning poem.  

CLICK HERE to pay your entry fee and submit your work. Submissions open on Oct. 15th and end on April 1st. 

Any remaining funds (after the $250 grand prize) will go to a Collections Management Intern/archivist fund for The Carl Sandburg Estate in Flat Rock, NC. Currently, there is one archivist in charge of Sandburg’s personal effects, which total over 300,000 documents.

In the long run, this is unsustainable. The Carl Sandburg Home is a vital link to preserving Sandburg’s memory, and we need to protect these artifacts for future generations. We at Citron are proud to be a part of this contest/fundraiser, and we hope you are too.

Sincerely,
Eric

*Quoted material excerpted from Sandburg’s “Chicago”
and from other Sandburg quotations.