Orchards October
Introduction
The Orchards is now open for submissions for our Winter 2025 issue! Please review the guidelines here: Guidelines – The Orchards poetry journal.
Kelsay Books opens our own in-house literary journal for submissions biannually to set the tone for the season. As always, the word cloud below conveys the theme we are curating. Previous issues are available for free online. We will select three Pushcart nominees and award cash prizes to first and second place poets! Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.
Ghost ship | Dew-shined antlers | Vestibula | The hierophant | A vine-wrapped house | What you’ll never tell your children | Indigo | Oysters on ice | Suburban esotericism | Cerebrospinal fluid | Squid-ink pen | Night-blooming jasmine | A black cat, arching its back | Flume boat | Paris Green | Moth-soft wings | A sprig of English thyme | Bonfire night | Ephemera | The Sedlec Ossuary | Foxen | Whispering pines | A fly trapped in amber | Porcelain | CandyLand | The Trial of Pope Formosus | Metronome | White oud | Institutionalized housewives | Rogue animatronics | Jellyfish | Centaur crossing | Geomancy | The arduous work of uncoupling | Lantern light | Ale-drunk tongue | Moss-furred stump | Peeling wallpaper | White-tailed deer | Initiates of Eleusis | Candle-quiet evenings | Redacted information | Edge of lightning | Poltergeists | A ribboned spaniel, all licks and wriggles | Tincture of feverfew | Cashmere | Hearthstone warm | Mulled wine | Buzzards | Foliage, dividing the light | Sunken-armchair stupor | Cobwebbed chandeliers | Allusions to the dawn | Dryer-warm sheets | Like and unlike sounds | Haunted arcade | A daydream of a boy with cornsilk-yellow hair | Synesthesia | Coffee in the loft | Saint Cecilia’s harp | Naglfar | Apothecary labels | Tarnished silver | Candlewax | Via Dolorosa | Jung’s Red Book | Sandalwood and cedar
Events
GREENSBORO, NC: Sunday, October 5: Myra Rasmussen and Holli Terrell-Cavalluzzi will give a reading at Scuppernong Books!
Chakana on display at Maria's Bookshop in Durango, CO
REMOTE: Saturday, October 11 at 4:00 p.m. MT: George Eklund will share selections from Toward a Credo on Zoom!
Register here to join the Zoom reading
Watch the book trailer here
Oct. 12, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m., with Owen Lewis, M.D.
Scarsdale Library, Scarsdale, NY
Oct. 23, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., with poet Robert Edward MissZoom, Chappaqua Library, Westchester, NY
Oct. 25, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m., Re-Coupling, Passion in Later Life, with poets Sally Bliumis-Dunn
and Susana H. CaseDobbs Ferry Library, Westchester, NY
Oct. 29, 3:30 - 4:30, Re-Coupling, Loss & Renewal, in conversation with Rabbi Lisa
Sacks, JCCMid-Westchester, Scarsdale, NY
REMOTE: Saturday, October 25, 2–4:30 p.m. ET: Elizabeth Morse hosts a Zoom reading with Brownstone Poets!
Register to join the Zoom reading
QUEENS, NY: Sunday, October 26 at 3:00 p.m. ET: Poets Heather Nelson, Sarah Sarai, Reagan Upshaw, and Jake Hargrove will give a reading at Q.E.D.
Learn more and buy tickets here
Reagan Upshaw was also featured in Horace & friends on Substack.
ASHEVILLE, NC: Alida Woods will read on November 2 at Malaprop’s bookstore and on November 8 at Story Core in Asheville, NC.
Awards
Congratulations Terry and Nancy Jo Allen!
Opportunities
The Nautilus Book Awards is now open for early bird book submissions!
Read the guidelines here
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2026 Rattle Chapbook Prize Deadline: January 15th |
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Three winners receive $5,000 and 500 author copies—and one of those winners must be a poet who has never published a full-length book. As always, each chapbook will receive full distribution to all 10,000+ subscribers, too. It’s a contest to launch a career, and we get to publish a series of incredible books in the process. |