Call for Submissions: Poetry That Crushes Silence and Breaks Systems

Dove Cry: Anti‑War Poetry – The Final Volume in The Broken Spine’s Thematic Slimlines Poetry Anthology Series

Submissions Open Throughout May 2026 | Publication Later That Year

I’ve built this series: After Hours, Last Light, High Rise, Glow, Rites & Trials, Haze, Verdigris, The Havisham Steps, Fragments, No Gods No Masters, Firmament, from a need for poetry that didn’t just speak but acted. Poetry that stood for people, not page-views. Poetry that punched above its weight. These collections have reshaped what The Broken Spine is and what it stands for.

Now this series bows out, and I’m doing it with raw purpose. Dove Cry is what comes last: the most political book in the series, the most urgent. This intends to be anti‑war poetry by parents, children, neighbours, soldiers. People who’ve known it. Not privileged folks who haven’t. This will not be trauma porn! Not detached or theoretical. Real‑world families. Real‑world damage. Real‑world silence turned into protest.

I am not including one of my own poems in these pages. My place is to hold the space for voices that deserve it. And 25% of all profits from Dove Cry will go directly to War Child, so your poems build more than art. They build hope.

What I’m Looking For

• Narrative poetry rich in imagery, but brutal in clarity
• Stories that shock, unsettle, and confront privilege
• Poems that don’t protect the reader, but demand they listen
• Work that is pro‑peace, anti‑violence, and yet not preachy
• Authenticity
• No echo‑chamber empty statements. This is poetry that raises money for child victims of war, globally: all genders, colours, creeds

What I’m Not Looking For

• Poems by those horrified by war in theory, but untouched by its reality
• Detached outrage from the comfort of safety
• Work that moralises but never bleeds
• Apolitical imagism that hides behind pretty language
• Shitty rhyming poetry that makes war sound like a GCSE assignment

If you’re just here to be shocked or to show how clever you are, don’t bother. This call isn’t for you.

This space is for people who’ve lived through war, who’ve lost to it, who carry it, and who want it to end for everyone, forever.

Submission guidelines

• Submissions open 1 May and close 31 May 2026
• Submit up to 2 poems
• A5 page size only
• Times New Roman, 10pt, single-spaced
• Titles must be bolded and italicised
• Left-aligned only, justified text will be rejected
• White space welcome; no shape poems
• No identifying info in the file—blind submissions only
• Work posted on social media is fine; work published elsewhere is not

Submission fee and what it supports

A £3 submission fee is optional. This pays for:

• Cover design by someone who gets the aesthetic
• Canva, Zoom, social scheduling tools
• Contributor copies for those in financial hardship
• Keeping the press alive so we can publish work that doesn’t kiss the ring

I don’t take a cut from submissions. The money goes back into the work.

Contributors will be offered copies at 50% of the cover price.

Submit Here

If selected

You’ll receive:

• A PDF of the collection
• Promo artwork to spread like a sticker on a lamppost
• Access to The Broken Spine’s Past Contributor Directory
• 50% off contributor copies

Timeline

• Submissions open 1 May 2026
• Submissions close 31 May 2026
• Contributors notified soon after
• Publication scheduled for 2026
• More details as the revolution unfolds

Editorial Note

Dove Cry is not a piece of art-driven complacency; it’s a call to witness. It is narrative, it is urgent, it is supremely political. We’ve done Beat, apocalypse, brutalism, city nights, coming-of-age, counterculture, decadence, Gothic, memory, punk, cosmic abyss. We’re ending with the realest question of all:

What do we do with the children whose worlds were torn apart by war? How do we help bring peace?

I want poems that refuse convenience. That challenge you and break through the noise. I want your anger, your grief, your raw truth. I want agency. I want history. I want justice, made fragile and human and poetic.

Make it matter. Make it loud. Make it necessary.