Quoted Material Recommendations

By sending work to Kelsay Books or The Orchards Poetry Journal, an author agrees to accept responsibility for avoiding copyright issues, including issues that may arise from quoting short material written by other authors. Kelsay Books reserves the right to have an author remove any potentially copyrighted material to protect our press.

We provide the following recommendations based on common publishing guidelines. This is not legal advice.

Understanding “Fair Use”

“Fair use” of copyrighted material is interpreted more narrowly in trade publications, including poetry collections, than in academic work. Some kinds of quotes interpret “fair use” more than other kinds; for example, song lyrics are notoriously strict about copyright.

Public-Domain Material

Material by authors who have been deceased for 70+ years, and material published before 1929, may be in the public domain. An author should be able to include such material with proper citations.

Other Material

If a quote appears at the beginning of your book or at the start of an individual poem (epigraphs), it is considered “decorative” rather than “illustrative” and might require permission, even if short.

For work published by Kelsay Books, an author will be expected to remove the quoted material and instead reference only the author and title. For example, instead of: Pure? What does it mean? — Sylvia Plath, “Fever 103°,” an epigraph might be: after “Fever 103°” by Sylvia Plath

If you are concerned that some of your quotes could violate best copyright practices, kindly remove them from any manuscript submitted to or in progress with us. Please respect our time by not describing your use of quoted material and asking us to evaluate it for you. “If in doubt, leave it out.”