We’re looking for poems that show poise and polish while aspiring to be both sonorous and audacious. Where care for craft is at the heart but also undaunted by the crucible, theme-wise. Verses that show the poet’s willingness to step outside the too-self-pointed, attuned to the odes and elegies of the world, mindful of the music of the spheres.
This podcast sheds some insight on how Cordite Poetry Review (and Cordite Books) works.
Submission to Cordite 113: NO THEME closes 11.59pm Melbourne time 12 May 2024.
Please note:
- The guest editor(s) has sovereign selection choice for all poems submitted.
- Masthead editors will also contribute to the issue.
- We will only read submissions sent during our official submission periods.
- Please place up to three (3) poems in one (1) Word, RTF or PDF document (unless specifically noted otherwise for special issues), with no identifying details in the document itself.
- We are not able to offer feedback on individual poems.
- Submissions will only be accepted via Submittable …
Joel M. Toledo is the author of seven books of poetry and the recipient of the 2025 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Poetry in English. A 2006 NCCA Writers Prize awardee, he has won various awards for his poetry, including the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award, the 2025 Nick Joaquin Literary Award Poet of the Year, and the Bridport Prize. His poems have appeared in
The Iowa Review, ZYZZYVA, The Prairie Schooner, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Kritika Kultura, the Likhaan Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, and
The Washington Square. He has co-edited local and international poetry journals and anthologies including
Caracoa, Under the Storm, and
Cordite Poetry Review. A recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Poetry Residency in Bellagio, Italy in 2011 and 2023, Toledo was a poetry fellow of the 2011 International Writers Program at the University of Iowa, USA. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Santo Tomas and is a Resident Fellow of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
Chris Tse Chris Tse is Aotearoa New Zealand's 13th Poet Laureate. He is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, HE’S SO MASC, and Super Model Minority, which was shortlisted for a 2023 Lambda Literary Award. He and Emma Barnes edited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa. Chris is the editor of The Spinoff’s Friday Poem and Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2023.
Kent MacCarter is director of Cordite publishing Inc., publisher of Cordite Books and managing editor of
Cordite Poetry Review. He is the author of four poetry collections –
In the Hungry Middle of Here (Transit Lounge, 2009),
Sputnik's Cousin (Transit Lounge, 2014), California Sweet (Five Islands Press, 2018) and Fat Chance (Upswell Publishing, 2024).
