Boyne Berries 27 Submission Guidelines

Snowdrop Spring - Pixabay

The submission period for Boyne Berries 27 opens on Saturday 23rd November 2019 and closes on Wednesday 1st January 2020 at midnight. Boyne Berries will now be published on an annual basis and this year its publication will coincide with Trim Poetry Festival in March. From 2006 until 2019 Boyne Berries was published bi-annually in Spring and Autumn.

The submission guidelines for Boyne Berries 27 are as follows:

Send up to 3 poems per poetry submission. Poems should be no more than 40 lines long. Fiction and prose submissions should be no more than 1000 words. Please use Times New Roman 12 and single spacing. Please include a short biographical note (50 words or less). Submissions should be placed in the body of the email and attached as a word document attachment. 

Work should be previously unpublished. 

Submit to orla.a.fay@gmail.com only.

Submissions which fail to adhere to the above criteria will be ignored.

New Launch Date for Boyne Berries 26

Poet Jean O'Brien

Issue 26 will now be launched on Thursday, 24th October at 8 pm in The Castle Arch Hotel, Trim. Poet Jean O'Brien will launch the issue. Contributors will read at the event, tea and coffee will be  served and admission is free. All welcome.

Jean O'Brien's New & Selected, Fish on a Bicycle is her fifth collection and was published by Salmon Poetry in 2016. She is an award-winning poet, having won, amongst others, The Arvon International Poetry Award and the Fish International, most recently she was Highly Commended for the Forward Prize.

Boyne Berries 26 Launch Date

Boyne Berries 26 will be launched on Thursday, 03^rd October 2019 at 8 pm in The Castle Arch Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath by poet Maurice Devitt.

MAURICE DEVITT completed the MA in Poetry Studies at Mater Dei, won the Trocaire/Poetry Ireland Competition and was placed or shortlisted in many other competitions including The Patrick Kavanagh Award, The Listowel Collection Competition and Cúirt New Writing Award. Selected for Poetry Ireland Introductions in 2016, he was a featured poet at the Poets in Transylvania Festival in 2015 and a guest speaker at the John Berryman Centenary Conference in both Dublin and Minneapolis. His poems have been nominated for Pushcart, Forward and Best of the Net prizes. He is curator of the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies site. He has recently published his debut collection Growing Up in Colour with Doire Press.

The magazine will be available to purchase on the night. A special feature of the issue is the inclusion of the poems shortlisted for Trim Poetry Competition 2019. Contributors to Boyne Berries 26 will read on the night. All welcome.

Boyne Berries 26 contains the work of Steve Denehan Fred Johnston Maria Isakova Bennett Maurice Devitt Frank Murphy Evan Costigan Tomas McGuiness Polly Richardson Fiona Sherlock Frances Browner Cathal Ennis Deirdre Crosby Gráinne Daly Nora Brennan Brian Kirk Jackie Lynam Jean O’Brien Maeve O’Sullivan John Paul Davies Eimear Bourke Marc Gijsemans Stephen McNulty Christina Hession David Butler Kevin Griffin Kevin Higgins Harry Owen Orla Fay Esther Murbach Eamon McGuinness Amanda Bell Frank Farrelly Catriona Clutterbuck Patrick Deeley Ruth Quinlan K.S. Moore Patrick Lodge Glen Wilson Paddy Smith Leah McDwyer Karen J McDonnell Margarita Meklina Rachel Sneyd

Boyne Writers Group acknowledges the generous assistance of Meath County Council Arts Office.

Boyne Berries 26 Call for Submissions

Autumn in Bavaria, Wassily Kandinsky

Submissions are now invited for the 26th issue of Boyne Berries Magazine and the window will close on Wednesday, 31st July 2019, at midnight. Boyne Berries 26 will feature poetry and flash fiction or prose on an open theme. The magazine will be published in late September 2019. 

Send up to 3 poems per poetry submission. Poems should be no more than 40 lines long. Fiction and prose submissions should be no more than 1000 words. Please use Times New Roman 12 and single spacing. Please include a short biographical note (50 words or less). Submissions should be placed in the body of the email and attached as a word document attachment. 

Submit to orla.a.fay@gmail.com only.

Submissions which fail to adhere to the above criteria will be ignored.

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty,

The woodland paths are dry,

Under the October twilight the water

Mirrors a still sky;

Upon the brimming water among the stones

Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me

Since I first made my count;

I saw, before I had well finished,

All suddenly mount

And scatter wheeling in great broken rings

Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,

And now my heart is sore.

All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,

The first time on this shore,

The bell-beat of their wings above my head,

Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,

They paddle in the cold

Companionable streams or climb the air;

Their hearts have not grown old;

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,

Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,

Mysterious, beautiful;

Among what rushes will they build,

By what lake's edge or pool

Delight men's eyes when I awake some day

To find they have flown away?

W.B. Yeats 

Trim Poetry Festival Poster

Boyne Berries 25 Cover Design

Thanks to Rory O'Sullivan for re-creating Greg Hastings' original Boyne Berries 1 cover.