Before sending work of any kind to Pemmican, potential contributors should thoroughly read through the following Submission Guidelines and the FAQ page.

Pemmican seeks previously unpublished political poems, feminist poems, working class poems, ecological poems, revolutionary poems, poems to piss off the police, poetry of imagery and imagination, prose poems, long poems, short poems, and poems that destabilize the assumptions of the general aesthetic.  

Pemmican is especially interested in those poets whose work has been marginalized, banned, or ignored to death for reasons other than quality.  

Pemmican also seeks literary criticism, articles, essays & book reviews relating to works of political poetry and working class culture.   Send finished articles, essays, and reviews or 3-7 poems per submission to:

pemmicanpress@hotmail.com

When first submitting work by email, please include it in the text body of the email transmission. Unless asked to do so directly, do not create an attachment for the document--it will be deleted unread.   Worms, trojans, and viruses are often delivered by way of attachments. If we know who you are, either because of past correspondence or because we have requested it, attachments in MS Word (or Word Perfect) may not only be encouraged but may also be required. (See Pemmican's FAQ for more on attachments.)

Pemmican does not want to see workshop minimalist poetry.   Journaling prose arbitrarily arranged into line breaks does not a poem make. On the other hand, people who write haiku or other Japanese or Chinese influenced forms, or work in various short structures are certainly encouraged to send poems.   However, having said that, Pemmican, is not interested in Asian influenced forms that do not address the requirements of the magazine (see the second paragraph of this page).

Rhymed poetry or poetry composed in traditional forms is fine but please no greeting card verse, and any rocking chair rhymes had better carry one hell of a satirical sparkle.  

As with any magazine, it is recommended that poets who have not published with Pemmican before take the time to read it and get a feel for the kinds of work that it generally publishes before submitting their own. Pemmican receives far too many poetry submissions per week that are wholly inappropriate for the magazine. Haiku about full moons and cherry blossoms, odes to Jesus, or tormented and overwrought work about unreturned love simply tells this editor that the poet hasn't bothered to read the magazine. Firing blind like that wastes everybody's time. I wouldn't send surrealist sonnets to a haiku magazine or political poems to Poetry and expect them to be published no matter what their other merits. Writers are expected to research their "markets", such as they are. With an online magazine such as Pemmican, which is essentially free, research ought to be easy, requiring simply a commitment of time.

Pemmican accepts poems under the terms of First North American Serial Rights. That is, when an author submits a poem and it is accepted, Pemmican is given the exclusive right to print the poem before it appears in any other publication.   In any subsequent publication of the work, whether in a book, chapbook, anthology or other magazine, Pemmican would receive credit as the magazine of original publication. In every respect, an online magazine is treated exactly like a print magazine or periodical, with everyone's rights and responsibilities the same. All rights to material published in Pemmican belong to the individual artists and any reproduction of this material, with the exception of selections quoted for the purposes of review, may be done only with their permission.

Multiple, or simultaneous, submissions are fine. The rules are the same as with any other magazine: if a poem should be accepted elsewhere, simply drop a note to Pemmican's Post Office Box or email address notifying us that the poem in question has been withdrawn from submission. It is indeed difficult for poets to send out poems, wait weeks, perhaps months on end for a reply that, odds are, will be negative--and then have to start the entire submission process all over again. Therefore multiple submissions are understood and encouraged.

(Multiple simultaneous publications of the same poem, however, are not acceptable, and any poet caught doing it will have their work dropped immediately and the other editors notified as well. Hustlers for the best publication credit are not appreciated in the small press poetry world, and if you don't believe me ask any editor out there. You don't play us, we won't play you.)

Pemmican will consider previously published work as well--but on a case-by-case basis.  Pemmican is much more inclined to republish articles, essays, reviews, etc., than poetry. Previously unpublished work is generally preferred but exceptions can be made.

Pemmican is always seeking articles, memoirs or anecdotes on anything related to working class culture, revolutionary culture and the history of struggle. We would also like to see more literary criticism on writers, especially poets, who have contributed to the culture of protest and struggle--what Thomas McGrath called "the other tradition". America has (and has always had) a rich tradition of authors who are not content to sit silently by as the machinery of empire grinds on toward more war and profit. These all-too-frequently invisible writers have done some of the most important and genuine work in American literature yet take home only the prize of their own conscience. There are good writers of literary criticism out there--the Christopher Caudwells of our time--let's hear from you.

Pemmican is happy to publish reviews of books and chapbooks which have working class, revolutionary, social, political, feminist or ecological themes. I'm not terribly fussy about when the book was published for the simple reason that a book of poetry takes up to five years to find its audience anyway--if it finds it at all, given the jungle between any small press book and a potential reader. It's more important that a poetry reading public be made aware of a particular book, and how to get it, whether it was published yesterday or forty years ago. If we don't promote our own culture, and rescue from ruling class oblivion our rich literary legacy, who will? Previously published reviews are fine. However, reviews are published as a courtesy. As with any other work sent to Pemmican, reviews are expected to be in a finished, proofread form. Reviewers also ought to provide detailed information on the book in question, as it applies, such as: address of the press, phone and fax numbers, website location and email address; cost of the book, how to order, shipping and handling fees; whether cloth or paper, numbered, signed or unsigned, etc. It is not the job of the editorial staff at Pemmican to research these details. The goal is to make it easy for interested readers to obtain a copy of the book.

Authors who send letters or other forms of communication to Pemmican, whether at the Post Office Box or to the official email address of the magazine, are agreeing to Pemmican's right to publish those letters and/or other forms of communication, either in whole or part, in the Letters to the Editor section. They are also agreeing to Pemmican's right to comment on the content of those letters. Pemmican will make reasonable efforts to inform authors of Pemmican's possible intent to publish those letters or other forms of communication. However, Pemmican is not obliged to contact the authors to inform them of said publication or secure their permission to do so. While Pemmican may publish the name of the author with his or her letters or other forms of communication, Pemmican agrees that it will not publish the addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers of authors published unless given express permission to do so.

One additional thing: please do not forward petitions, chain letters, etc. to Pemmican's email address.   If it's a cause we need to take action on, provide a URL to a website, an address or a phone number which can then be posted in the News section of Pemmican, and in that way people can decide for themselves whether it's something they want to be involved in.