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 usually edits 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 or six 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.Five special Literary History issues honor the legacy of poets who once resided in Washington: the Memorial Issue, the Profiles Issue the Forebears Issue, the US Poets Laureate Issue and the Literary Organizations Issue include essays and interviews celebrating DC's rich literary history. We aim to publish a history issue every other year.
Other special issues are arranged around themes that reflect aspects of life in Washington, DC: politics, famous former residents, museums and monuments, and neighborhoods. The Whitman Issue examines the poet's life and the themes of his writing, published to honor the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Leaves of Grass. The Langston Hughes Issue will be published in January 2011. The Wartime Issue provides poetic responses to the conflict in Iraq. The DC Places Issue features a poetic geography of the city, with a terrific interactive map of the city. A continuation of that issue, Mapping the City: DC Places II, will be published in October 2010. The Evolving City has poems on construction, preservation, gentrification, the identity of neighborhoods—all the myriad ways cities change over time. A Museum Issue celebrates museums and their collections. An Audio Issue features 20 poems recorded with music, or highlighting distinctive voices. Other special issues celebrate DC-based organizations, including The Bunny and The Crocodile Press, Plan B Press, Split this Rock Poetry Festival, and the 15th Anniversary of DC's first spoken word venue, It's Your Mug Coffeehouse. For our tenth anniversary issue, we published A Celebration of Guest Editors, with new poems and reminiscences by the 15 writers who generously served as guest editors in the journal's first ten years.
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 the Mid-Atlantic States of 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. 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.
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