WELCOME to Beltway Poetry Quarterly
Since January 2000, Beltway Poetry Quarterly has published poetry by authors who live or work in the capital of the United States. Kim Roberts edits two to three issues a year. One issue is typically a themed issue with an open call for entries, and one issue is guest edited by another area writer (who has previously been featured in an issue). Each issue (other than the themed issues) typically features four to eight poems by five authors. We strive to showcase the richness and diversity of Washington area authors in every issue, with poets from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, ages, and sexual orientations represented. We have included Pulitzer Prize winners and those who have never previously published. We publish academic, spoken word, and experimental authors—and also those poets whose work defies categorization.Three special Literary History issues honor the legacy of poets who once resided in Washington: the Memorial Issue, the Profiles Issue and the Forebears Issue include essays and interviews celebrating DC's rich literary history. We aim to publish a history issue every other year.
Five other special issues are arranged around themes. The Whitman Issue is an anthology of 38 poems that examine the poet's life and the themes of his writing, published in 2005 to honor the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Leaves of Grass. The Whitman Issue was co-sponsored by the Washington Friends of Walt Whitman, and co-edited by Kim Roberts and Saundra Rose Maley. The Wartime Issue, guest edited by Sarah Browning, is an anthology of poetic responses to the conflict in Iraq. The DC Places Issue features a poetic geography of the city, co-edited by Roberts and Andrea Carter Brown. That issue features a terrific interactive map of the city, designed for us by Emery Pajer. The Evolving City, co-edited by Roberts and Teri Ellen Cross, includes poetic responses to construction, preservation, gentrification, the identity of neighborhoods—all the myriad ways cities change over time. A fifth themed issue, celebrating museums and their collections, was published in January 2009, co-edited by Roberts and Maureen Thorson.
In addition to the journal, we are pleased to provide information and extensive links.
The Poetry News section is updated monthly. This section lists new book publications and new issue releases by DC-area presses and journals, calls for entries, poetry readings, and other events of interest occuring during the present month. (The months of July and August are always a combined listing.) Phone numbers will be listed if available; please contact the sponsoring groups directly to verify the accuracy of this information. Please note that the Poetry News section only lists readings in the greater DC region, although listings of Calls for Entries and Special Events include the whole Mid-Atlantic.
The Resource Bank offers extensive links for poets and their audiences in DC, MD, VA, WV, and DE. We include listings of organizations that give grants to writers, membership organizations that offer writing classes and other services, reading and performance series, small presses and literary journals, conferences and festivals, and literary blogs from the Mid-Atlantic, as well as a more geographically-restricted listing of DC-area libraries, museums and bookstores. A special feature of the Links section is a listing of other web sites devoted to individual area poets past and present from the greater DC area, from such historical figures as Langston Hughes and Sterling A. Brown, to such contemporary writers as Jane Shore and Hilary Tham. Another link lists Artist Residency Programs, and I believe ours in the most complete listing of this kind to be found anywhere. With programs across the US and in many other countries, these links can help artists of all disciplines find a place away from home to create new work.
Subscribe!
Subscriptions are free. There are two options. Enter your email below, click GO, and it will direct you to a page on the DC Film Alliance web site (the generous in-kind sponsor of Beltway Poetry's list serve). Choose either:BELTWAY POETRY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. If you would like to get email notices four times a year with announcements of new issues.
BELTWAY POETRY LOCAL. Want more? If you would like a subscription PLUS information about readings, calls for entry, and other literary events in the greater DC region, please join our local list. If you choose this option, you will get an email from us approximately once a month.
Join Our Mailing List:
Submissions, Masthead, and More
CLICK HERE for information about Submissions and Forthcoming IssuesCLICK HERE for information about Staff and Volunteers
CLICK HERE for Acknowledgements and Press Coverage of Beltway Poetry Quarterly