seedfall: LORE

seedfall is Tulipwood's annual journal of poetry and prose by women and nonbinary and trans writers.

We invite you to submit work on this year's theme: Lore. 

Lore is story—both true and imagined. Lore carries connotations of family myth-making, of cultural wisdom, of shared ethics. It is knowledge gained through study. “Lore” shares a root with “learn.” Mythology travels alongside lore, with elements of whimsy, memoir, and otherworldliness. 

In the tradition of “Turn of the Screw,” tell us a story within a story. Bring us into the hand-told tale passed down from generations, the anecdote, the vignette sanded smooth by Time, where the act of remembering and retelling, with no strict allegiance to fact or to fiction, is our resistance.

What customs and experiences have shaped you? Send us your musings on fact versus fiction, your own personal mythologies and the secrets you have been waiting to share. We can create our own lore just as easily as we can live by another’s. To quote bell hooks, “We chart our lives by everything we remember—from the mundane moment to the majestic. We know ourselves through the art and act of remembering.”

Submission Guidelines                 

Tulipwood Books is a developmental-editing press. We work with authors to develop work toward publication, and we're excited to get the chance to collaborate with you. 

For seedfall, we only consider work from women and trans and nonbinary people. Please respect this constraint. See our other submission calls for opportunities open to people of all genders.

Submissions

Please send only previously unpublished work: 3-5 poems (totaling no more than 10 pages), or one prose piece (and 3000 words or less), along with a cover letter, short bio, and any questions that you might have for us, via our Submittable portal.

• .docx or .pdf format for writing
• Please start each new poem on a new page.
• Use a 12-point font or larger, and a standard typeface like Times New Roman or Aptos.
• Please submit writing that you are willing to develop with an editor. 

Collaboration

• If your work is chosen for publication, we will notify you via Submittable and contact you via email with our edits.
• Your work will not be published until all edits are approved by both author and editor.
• Please consider buying a back issue to get a sense of what we publish. Find out more about the journal and the press at our website: tulipwood.org

Policies

• Tulipwood Books retains North American First Serial Rights for all accepted work. Rights revert to the author upon publication.
• We do consider previously-published work, but you must provide acknowledgment and written proof that you retain the rights to the work.
• We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately If your work is accepted elsewhere. Once we accept your work, we expect that you will withdraw it from consideration elsewhere.
• There is no guarantee of publication.

Terms of Use

• No hate speech. This includes: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, ableism, or any other oppressive or shameful language of any kind.
• No sexual violence. Other violence is also not recommended.
• No depictions of self-harm, suicide, or suicidal ideation. No exceptions.
• No AI-generated or AI-collaborated work. This should go without saying.