Is there a more loaded word than PROPAGANDA? It’s the tool of choice for authoritarians everywhere, an opiate for the masses, filled with manipulation, misrepresentation and outright lies with half an eye to creating convenient divisions and discord. The etymology of the word, though, is something more neutral: a modern twist on Latin that indicates material intended to be published or propagated. Information can be propagated to divide or to unite. It doesn’t have to lie, it doesn’t even have to frame the truth. Is there still time to reclaim the word back from the vile place in which it has found itself? Maybe not. But it shouldn’t stop us from continuing to create, communicate and persuade. The clock ticks.

Submit poems (prose, comics, visual, concrete) or works of micro-fiction (500 words maximum). Read more about submitting to Cordite Poetry Review. Please note:

1. We will only read submissions sent during our official submission periods.

2. Cordite maintains a hybrid submissions policy. This means that the guest editor may invite five (5) Australian and five (5) overseas authors directly to submit to the issue. In addition, the guest-editor will anonymously select an additional 30-35 works from Australian authors and use their discretion to select further overseas works. For each issue, the guest editor does not know the identities of the online contributors (via Submittable) until after the final selections have been made.

3. Simultaneous submissions or previously published material will not be considered. This includes works published in print and web journals but does not apply to material first published on personal blogs.

4. 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.

5. We are not able to offer feedback on individual poems.

6. Submissions will only be accepted via Submittable …