A new reading period emerges, and with it does a pair of fresh eyes and dear friends to work with along the way! We are delighted to say that for this upcoming submission window, we will be collaborating with the lovely editors of The Martello Journal, a Dublin-based collection of art, photography, poetry, and prose now in their third edition of emotive joy and beauty. This project, something indelibly exciting and close to all our hearts, is the culmination of many years of love and friendship, and we present it to you with all the fondness for people, place, and purpose we can gather. 

 

An Aítiúil is, at its base, an anthology. Soon to be filled with poetry, art, photography, and prose (yes, we are reading prose now), it is a reflection of the space which must be created for art to survive and thrive. The expansion of the literary scene is proof enough of this; what began for us as local endeavors have expanded to encompass places and people unknown to us and equally unfamiliar. In this presence, though, and in this bounty, we hope to return to the beginning, and celebrate through a variety of mediums the space one holds in their heart for Irish identity, culture, writing, language, landscape, and people, fit into one format, one celebration, one refuge. 

 

Aítiúil, meaning local, is to us an expression of magnetism and emotion that calls people into a shared song. A place affined with home is more than the sum of the times you darken its door or halt on a journey through. There is a persistence of how one feels that is woven into the winds that whip around it. Consider this feeling, and melt into it, think of the good and the bad and the nights spent trying to avoid too much of either. Think of what is home and very far away from home, what is boundless and what is just a ways down the road. Send us poetry that is vicious, heartbreaking, bursting, and screaming out to sea –– all that is found here, right outside your door, in the garden, at the end of the lane. We want to know you and what is around you, what ties you to this place, this country, and what makes you leave it. 

 

Specific guidelines will be as follows:

 

i. This is an anthology in collaboration with The Martello Journal, and is not an edition published by either of us. An Aítiúil will not be the sixth edition of The Madrigal, or the fourth edition of The Martello. It is a project undertaken by both of us, collaboratively.

 

ii. You may submit 1-3 poems, up to 1,000 words of prose, and an unlimited number of art and photographs. You may submit to each category, but please ensure each category receives a separate email submission. You may not submit to the same category twice.

 

iii. All work must be centered around Ireland, as this is an anthology dedicated to such. Do not send us work which does not connect to this theme.

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Send all work to anaitiuilsubmissions@gmail.com; we can’t wait to read them. 

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With love,

Helen, Luke, Úna and Jack