Prompts & Submissions
Something different bloomed, writing in my room ~ T. Swift
You can submit any poetry or flash fiction (not to exceed 1,000 words) on themes that Taylor's lyrics use. For each edition of Swift Lits, we will choose a certain number of general submissions for publication as well as a certain number of work (yet to be determined!) that responds to the prompt. We will also choose pieces which we will feature on TikTok and Instagram! You will receive an email letting you know the status of your work - please be patient. The standard wait time for any literary journal is three months minimum. We want to carefully consider each piece, and this takes time.
With each submission, include your name and email on the document. Please also send a short bio of around 100-150 words.
Thanks for submitting to Swift Lits! We are excited to read your work!
Writing prompt #1: Taylor's song "happiness" on evermore analyzes how a relationship which the speaker was in ultimately brought both happiness and sadness. She sings, "There'll be happiness after you/But there was happiness because of you/Both of these things can be true."
Write a poem or a piece of flash fiction that addresses this. What has brought you both happiness AND sadness? How is it true that in order to understand happiness we also have to experience sadness? While it can be about a relationship (a lover, a friend), it can be about other concepts as well, such as becoming a parent, moving to a new place, starting a new career, finding yourself living alone after your last child goes to college...
Poet Jane Hirshfield responded to the song "happiness" in Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift. Closely read and think about her poem. Notice that she does not RETELL the song, but instead RESPONDS to the song "happiness." We do not want retellings of Taylor's songs. We will not publish works that contain direct lyrics or simply retell the story of the song. (The poems in Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Poems of Taylor Swift model what we are looking for - poems that do not contain strings of direct lyrics or retell Taylor's songs). Click here for the poem/song pairing list.
And now from the distance of time
Jane Hirshfield
And now from the distance of time
when stories are over
one in a frame on a dresser
one left to remember
you left with nowhere to leave to
a world where nothing can vanish can vanish
from inside the trees or above them
the moon blameless as I was as you were
call it weather
call it something that lives outside measure
a lifetime apart a lifetime together
are neither forever nor never
a lifetime together a lifetime apart
one person turns into another
forgive past forgive future departure
a story continues beyond its erasure
we were two oars dividing one water
and time cannot sever
Taken with permission from Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift, by Jane Hirshfield
Submit here!