Please note - due to the slow economy/response to the 2008 contest, the deadline has been set back to the following date:

~May 15, 2009~ 

Guidelines for Online Contest Entry:

1.  Let us know if you are also submitting your poetry elsewhere (not our favorite thing, but it happens, so just let us know, okay?).

2.  Purchase entry through our checkout page (The Breadbox ).

3.  Go to the Contact page and add your poetry and contact information. Or send an email with your contact information and up to five poems, in the body of the email,  to:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Guidelines for Entry by Regular Mail:

1.  Submit up to five poems.  These do not have to be from your proposed chapbook; please just submit your best work.

2.  Enclose a cover page with your name, email and street address, the poems' titles, and, if possible, the name of your proposed chapbook.  (We do not require biographical or publication information unless anything submitted has been previously published - in that case, please  let us know).

3.  If submitting from within the United States, enclose a money order,  paid to the order of  Mary Smyth, for $8.00 (without feedback) or $12 (includes feedback and suggestions).  Outside the United States,  enclose a money order or certified check to Mary Smyth,  for  $16.00 (without feedback) or $20 (includes feedback and suggestions). 

4.  To be notified by regular mail,  enclose a S.A.S.E.   Otherwise you will be notified via email.  Unused entries will be recycled unless you enclose a large envelope with sufficient return postage.

Mail to:

Bread & Lightning

3117 Polk Avenue

San Diego, Ca.  92104-2014 

Upcoming Collection - Ain't Got No Home:  An Anthology on Street Life and the Homeless

(No Deadline Set as Yet)

Prizes:  Published writers will receive a copy of the anthology.  Writers who are local or able to afford passage to San Diego will be featured in a reading.  All submissions will be eligible for publication on the website.  Outstanding homeless writers will receive cash prizes based on 40% of the money received through entries.  The rest of the entry fee money will be applied to book production and to  outstanding submissions by non-homeless writers. 

For this anthology we're looking for dynamic poetry and fiction (short stories and micro-fiction).  Photography and visual art are also welcome (There is no fee so submit visuals.  If you have them online please just send a link via email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or the  Contact page.  If you are sending samples via regular mail please send to the address above with a large envelope with sufficient return postage).

Include a cover letter with your contact information, including email.  Fiction should be typed and double-spaced.  Include a S.A.S.E. if you wish your material to be returned. Otherwise you will be notified by email and the material will be recycled.  Please go our Breadbox page to see entry fees and make sure to write your money order to the order of Mary Smyth.

Open Call for the most ridikulous poetry and flash fiction - no deadline, no fee to submit

As of April 15, for the website, we welcome the most ridiculous poetry and flash fiction your mind can produce. Who can't use a good chuckle?  And while we are rolling on the floor laughing we may discover something brilliant.  Submit via our Contact Page or by contacting Mary Leary at Facebook.

Artists in Recovery - Writing Sought; Meeting Materials Available

If you are an artist or creative person of any sort who is in  any of the addiction recovery programs (A.A., N.A., C.M.A., M.A., S.L.A.A., etc.), we are interested in what you have to say about it.  Are you flourishing or floundering without "people, places and things'?  Are you more or less creative now that you've stopped being "under the influence"? 

If you have poetry, anecdote,  personal account or meditation to share, you may do so by submitting through our Contact page or mailing to the address above. Please make sure to mention which recovery program(s) you attend and to include contact information.  (Any entries published on the website or in a possible print publication will be anonymous unless otherwise requested.)  If sending via regular mail, enclose a large, addressed envelope with sufficient return postage.

Information on A.I.R. (Artists in Recovery): If you are a recovering substance addict and miss communing with other artists and creative people, a new program has formed.  To receive a meeting packet with a program statement, a meeting format, and suggestions for appropriate readings, send a $5 materials fee with your street address and contact info to us through the  Breadbox page.  Or send your contact information with a check made out to Mary Smyth at the street address above.

Photographers and Artists

We are interested in art and photography for the website and print projects.  We are also accepting submissions by those who would like to do fine art and photographic narratives, photo-poetry,  or collage.  Email a link to your online work through our contact page or send a few samples by regular mail with sufficient return postage attached to a self-addressed envelope.

Arts Reviewers
 

Feel free to send unpublished reviews of poetry books and (current or upcoming) photographic and artistic exhibitions.  Unusual film reviews are also welcome. While we are currently unable to offer financial renumeration, we welcome your insights.  If you're unsure whether your work will be a "fit,"  query us first.

Speaking of Money

Should Bread & Lightning receive income above the costs of production and expenses we will donate 5% or more to an environmental or relief organization to be determined by each contest's winners.

In The Kitchen

Mary Leary is Bread & Lightning's editor and co-judge.  Her poetry, music, and/or performance art  have been featured at sites including KPBS FM, KRCB FM, Woodbury University, the Laguna Beach Library, the NW Singer-Songwriter Showcase,  La Mama,  and Hardart Gallery.  Publications featuring her poetry and essays have included Hurricane Blues:  Poems about Katrina and Rita (SE Missouri State Univ. Press),  Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend - Women Writers on Baseball (Faber & Faber), Crimes of the Beats (Autonomedia),  Driftwood Highway, Poetry Motel, Public Illumination, Creekwalker,  Earth's Daughters, Buffalo Bones, The Melic Review, Gypsy 3, and Arbor Vitae.  Permeable Press published her flash fiction collection, Cher Wolfe & Other Stories. 

Ms. Leary also edited and published seminal new wave/arts magazine (the) Infiltrator, literary-art magazine Little Product on the Prairie, and literary-art co-op The True Wheel.  She has done editing and copywriting for Family Circle, Savvy Woman, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, and various poets and novelists.

Co-judge Anne Wilson has been published and honored so often that brevity demands citing just a fraction of these events.  She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the 2006 Sherwin W. Howard Award in Weber Studies.  Her poetry volume, Solea, won the 2005 San Diego Book Award.  Other honorable mentions and "runner-up" designations have been given by the Atlanta Review, Sheila Na-Gig, and the Muriel Craft Bailey and Frances Locke Memorial competitions.  When not producing poetry Ms. Wilson teaches creative writing at several universities as well as through workshops and with individuals.  She is a published and produced essayist and playwrite.

Chris Weeks is the illustrator who helped bring Carolyn Moore's chapbook to life.  He is a digital and 3D artist employed by the video game industry.  From childhood he has been involved in traditional media, particularly pencil drawing.  Mr. Weeks has done a number of poetry illustration projects, a pursuit inspired by his mother, who is a poet.  He graduated from the USC School of Fine Arts in 2002.  He lives in Los Angeles.