Submissions are open for Issue Two. 

Let’s journey back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for a moment. Romanticism is running rampant and challenging traditional literary forms, especially in the world of poetry. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley are at their prime. 

 

But it’s not them that I want to focus on for this next issue. I want us to look at William Blake. He wrote Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789-1794), just before the hey-day of romanticism. I haven’t been able to get these poems out of my head since I first read them almost a decade ago.  

 

And that’s your challenge for this next issue – to satisfy my love of the duality of life.

 

For issue two, I want companion poems and flash fiction that depict differing views on the same topic: one coming from innocence and one from experience. The subject matter I will leave up to you. 

 

Before you sit down to write your poems and flash fiction, I strongly suggest reading Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which you can read in full on Gutenberg here. 

 

Please note that I do not want to see rip-offs of William Blake’s work. You can allude to the poems, but please don’t copy or update them. I want to see original work that tackles modern-day topics.

 

I am interested in seeing work from international and Canadian writers, including marginalized and underrepresented groups. 

The rules to win:

• Poets must submit two stand-alone* poems that are no longer than 60 lines each. Poems may be in any style that you want. You don’t have to follow Blake’s style (though it would be cool if you did.)

• Authors must submit two complete, stand-alone* flash fiction stories no longer than 600 words each. 

• Bonus points if your stories and poems include accompanying illustrations. (But they are not necessary for publication.)

* By stand-alone, I mean that the poem or story should be able to make sense on its own without its companion beside it. The second piece should not be a continuation of the events in the previous work. You can read Blake’s poems on their own, so the same applies to your work too. 

Disqualifiers:

• Don’t send me one poem or one story hoping I’ll write or find a companion for it. 

• Please don’t send me anything hateful towards others. 

• No poems or stories with excess violence, gore, or erotica, please. 

• Anything that doesn’t follow these guidelines.

• We don’t accept reprints. All work must be original and unpublished.

 

The deadline to submit is May 15, 2021, and the next issue will be released on June 21, 2021. 

 

Like last time, authors may submit once per submission period. Please send everything to submissions.thesunshinereview@gmail.com with the following email subject line [CATEGORY – PROSE or POETRY] SUBMISSION + TITLE. Also, include a short author bio (150 words) and any social media and website links. 

 

All documents must be sent in a .doc or .docx format. Do not copy and paste your submission into the body of the email. Writers, please expect a response from me within a week and a half after the submission deadline on my final decision. 

 

The Sunshine Review accepts simultaneous submissions. If you are published elsewhere, please let me know, and I’ll withdraw your work. I do not take reprints.

 

All rights revert back to the author upon publication.

 

At this time, I am unable to pay writers for their work.