Call for Poems and Elizabeth Austen's New Position as Poet Laureate

Meet Washington State's New Poet Laureate

The Seattle Sea Hawk's win is not the only big news of the weekend. It's official! Elizabeth Austen is the new Poet Laureate of Washington State. Elizabeth is well known to many in Western Washington not only for her stellar poetry collection Every Dress A Decision but also because for many year's she's been the voice of poetry at KUOW. At 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 16th, Elizabeth Austen and Kathleen Flenniken will do a joint reading at Open Books in Wallingford. The afternoon will be a symbolic handing over of the reins from our current Poet Laureate to Elizabeth.

In addition to Elizabeth's new position bringing poetry to all corners of the state, she has just sent out a call for poems. Austen is guest editing Floating Bridge Review's next issue "Help Wanted: The Poetry of Work." Here is what she is asking for --- and by the way --- you don't have to be in Washington to send...

Help Wanted: The Poetry of Work

January 19, 2014 by Elizabeth Austen

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work - Wendell Berry

I’m guest editing the next issue of Floating Bridge Review – please consider submitting (and please share this widely — the call is open to all poets, not just those in Washington state).


Help Wanted: The Poetry of Work

Work – or the lack of it – shapes our personalities, our days, and our health. For some, it defines our status. Floating Bridge Review #7 seeks poems concerned with the interplay of labor and identity: first jobs, lay-offs, job hunting, unemployment, hard labor, happy hour, housework, sex work, volunteer work, retirement, the multiple and never-ending labors of parenthood.

Submission guidelines:
E-mail up to three previously unpublished poems as a single Microsoft Word document or single PDF file.
Put FBR7 SUBMISSION in the subject line of your e-mail and be sure to include your mailing address.
Send to floatingbridgepress (at) yahoo (dot com). No cover letter needed, but please include a brief bio.
Deadline: March 31, 2014.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you notify us immediately if the work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
Floating Bridge Review is published by Floating Bridge Press

The quote above is from Wendell Berry’s poem “The Real Work.”