"War Poetry Postcard Project" Contest: Your War in 26 Lines or Less!
Literary organizations Middle West Press LLC and Collateral Journal have issued a short-fuze call for postcard-sized poems that thematically engage with the effects of war, state violence, and military service.
Contest deadline is May 3, 2025.
This summer, up to three prize-winners of the inaugural “War Poetry Postcard Project” contest will have their poems published as visually engaging glossy 4x6 postcards, each suitable for mailing to friends, family, politicians, and others.
Learn more about the project at: linktr.ee/warpoets
“With the increasing chaos and friction of the world around us, and the decreasing utility of social media in building community, we’ve found ourselves looking for new ways to encourage artful conversations about experiences with the military,” says Randy “Sherpa” Brown (he/him) of Middle West Press LLC, Johnston, Iowa. Brown is a published poet and literary activist, as well as a 20-year retired U.S. Army veteran. “That can include chewy discussions about moral injury, honor, patriotism, mental health, resilience, and remembrance.”
Collateral Journal founder and Pacific Northwest poet Abby E. Murray (they/them) supplied the project’s keynote poem, and will assist in judging contest entries. First published on-line in Rattle magazine Nov. 17, 2024, Murray’s poem “Hello, I am Not a Soldier” wrestles with a new dissonance felt within their active-duty U.S. Army family: “[...] Wherever I go, I cling to my hope / like a weapon I have been trained to love.”
North Carolina poet and U.S. Marine Corps spouse Lisa Stice, most recently the author of the poetry collection “Letters from Conflict” (2024) and co-editor of “Things We Carry Still: Poems & Micro-Stories about Military Gear” (2023), will also assist in judging. In addition to her on-going role as associate editor at Middle West Press, Stice recently joined the volunteer staff of Collateral Journal as the publications’ visual arts editor.
Submit up to 3 poems, each less than 26 lines each. New or reprint work is acceptable. Deadline for submissions is Sat., May 3, 2025. A Submittable link is here at this link.
Each prize-winner will receive a set of 25 of their respective poems published as mailable postcards, and a trophy “War Poetry Postcard Prize-winner” coffee mug!
An entry fee of $9.99 (U.S.) will help the project cover production, mailing, and prize expenses.
Each U.S. poet entering the contest will receive a packet of the 3 winning poems! (Alternative products may be available to international entrants.) Entries will also be considered for inclusion in a potential print and/or e-book chapbook to be published later in 2025.
Established in 2016 by Abby E. Murray, Collateral Journal is a twice-annual on-line journal that features “literary and visual art concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone.” Murray is a former poet-laureate of the City of Tacoma, Washington, and the author of the poetry collections “Hail and Farewell” (Perugia Press, 2019) and “Recovery Commands” (Ex Ophidia Press, 2025).
Incorporated as an independent micro-publisher in 2015 by freelance editor and writer Randy “Sherpa” Brown, Middle West Press LLC annually produces from 1 to 4 projects of non-fiction, journalism, fiction, and poetry. Brown’s credits include a poetry collection, “Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire” (2015), as well as other work.
Middle West Press’ literary projects often celebrate the people, places, and history of the American Midwest, as well as U.S. military veterans and families. Past projects include anthologies such as “Giant Robot Poems: On Mecha-Human Culture, Science & War” (2024) and “Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War” (2019).
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