Poetry in Motion announces “Measure” as the title for the next anthology, the 25th such anthology from Community Arts Partnership.

Whether understanding value, exploring distance or organising rhythmic structures in art, “Measure” offers an opportunity for new work to promote the purpose and essence of poetry: a means to assess, reflect, and convey the intricacies and dynamics of life, emotion, and experience. The anthology exclusively aims to showcase Northern Irish voices, providing a proven and long-standing platform for new writing that resonates both locally and beyond.

The opportunity for all submissions to be considered for the The Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing adds a further dimension to this opportunity; underscoring our deep commitment to excellence, community, and legacy. Seamus Heaney’s own connection to our Poetry in Motion programme with his offering us the poem “Catechism” way back in 2001, and now with his widow Marie Heaney’s continuing support, highlights our dedication to the inclusivity and encouragement of emerging writers—a value shared with our principal funder, the Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI).

This programme always endeavours to honour literary quality as it celebrates the nurturing of talent and the promotion of new poetic opportunities. With Seamus Heaney’s legacy woven into the fabric of this programme, MEASURE speaks to the breadth and depth of established and emerging poetry talent here.

Given the somewhat delayed start to the programme this year, the deadline for submissions has been pushed back until Friday 14th February 2025, 5pm. We’d love to hear from you.

Deadline: Friday 14th February 2025, 5pm

Details of masterclasses to support writers will follow in the coming days:

SUBMISSION RULES

The title of the printed anthology will be called ‘Measure’. You are invited to reflect on our title in your poem, but please avoid the title “Measure” for any poem.

All Submissions must be made electronically, marking the subject line of your email ‘Poetry in Motion Submission.’

All submissions must be received by CAP by 5pm on Friday 14th February 2025. Submissions received after this time will automatically disqualified.

Download Submission Template 2024-2025 (pdf)

FORMATTING:

1. Poems (excluding titles) must be no more than 35 lines long (including line/stanza breaks) and no more than 75 characters per line (a character can be a letter, number, space or any keystroke).
2. If you paste your poem into the official Submission Template PDF above, you will be unable to fit in lines which contain more than 75 characters, so please adjust your lines accordingly so that your poem is not disqualified. Please double check your formatting so that you are content. We can only accept the formatting you provide in our template.

Submissions must be made either:

• • Typed in Word-compatible documents and emailed to submissions@capartscentre.com meeting the exact format above
    OR
  • Download and Save our Submission Template pdf above to your computer, paste or type in your poem, save and rename the pdf to the TITLE of your poem and then email to: submissions@capartscentre.com

3. If you are submitting more than one poem (you may submit up to 3), you should attach each poem in a separate document. Each attachment should be saved as the poem title e.g. ‘The River.pdf’. Please do not use the title ‘CAP submission, or ‘Submission’ – we can only accept documents which are the title of your poem. If your name appears on the poem or in the name of the document, it will be disqualified.
4. Poems previously published must not be submitted. Original work that has appeared online for any reason is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
5. Late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances.
6. In the body of the email, you must provide your name, address with postcode, phone number, email address, a list of the titles of your attached poems
7. Please find my poem(s) attached: Poem Title(s)
   Name: Val Brown (this will be the name attribution in the published anthology)
   Email: valb@email.com
   Address (in one line only): 251 Haiku Gardens Ballytown BT20 20XX
   Phone number: 0777777777
   …and you must include the following statement: ‘I have read and understood the submission rules and I hereby verify that my poetry submission is my own original work and has not been published elsewhere.’
8. PLEASE NOTE that if you do not include this information in your email, in the form indicated above, CAP reserves the right to disqualify your submission. 
9. No more than three submissions per person are permitted. If you submit more than three, none will proceed to the selection process.
10. If your submission does not address all of the criteria/formatting listed above correctly, CAP reserves the right to automatically disqualify your submission.
11. Do not make simultaneous submissions to other potential publishers: ie. work that has been submitted or is being considered elsewhere, should not be submitted. Should we find evidence to the contrary, your submission will be disqualified.
12. You must live in Northern Ireland (we will seek verification of your address should your poetry be selected for publication/award)
13. By making a submission, you grant permission for Community Arts Partnership to publish the poems submitted and retain publishing copyright. All individual copyright rests with you, the poet.
14. By making a submission, you also automatically grant permission for your work to be submitted for consideration in the Seamus Heaney Awards for New Writing 2025. 
15. Copyright remains with the poet; however, if your work is selected and published by Community Arts Partnership you must credit us in any future publications or collections in which your work appears stating that the piece was first published by Community Arts Partnership and giving the name of the publication (Measure, Poetry in Motion Anthology, 2025).
16. Community Arts Partnership reserves the right to make reasonable minor adjustments and/or offer suggestions prior to publication such as typos or formatting irregularities. In some limited editorial cases, poets may be contacted to ascertain adjustments.
17. Community Arts Partnership reserves the sole editorial right to select and publish any given work or not.
18. By making a submission you accept that the decisions of Community Arts Partnership regarding this publication and awards process are absolute and final.

Queries

If you have any queries about Poetry in Motion Community 2024-2024, The Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2025 or the submission process itself, please contact Steven Tunley at steven@capartscentre.com or call the CAP office at 02890923493.

Submission Tips

Is this your first submission? Well, here are just a few helpful tips:

• Check your punctuation and spelling. If this is sloppy it implies that you haven’t taken care to edit and that you are submitting a draft. If unsure, ask someone to look over it for you.
• Avoid using the most obvious words. If your submission is to stand out in the selection process it needs to be different. So therefore, avoid using the anthology title ‘Measure’ if at all possible
• Let the reader do some work. Convey an emotion by describing a moment rather than by describing a thought.
• Is there a reason for rhyme? If not, go with better words rather than rhyming words.
• On a similar theme, be creative and avoid clichés. Approach the idea from a different angle.
• Write in a voice that is comfortable to you. (We don’t speak in Shakespearean language so why would we write that way?)
• Avoid being verbose, or relying on jargon. Simplicity is often stronger.
• Avoid language that could be defamatory, libellous or slanderous.
• Read your poem back aloud. Are you tripping over a word? Perhaps change it

Best of luck
CAP