Spark to Flame is a journal dedicated to collaborative poetry. We pair poets to co-author poetry anonymously through submissions of poetry fragments (sparks). If a fragment is accepted, it is then sent to another author, who turns it into a cohesive poem (flame). You can choose to submit a spark and write off of someone else’s spark, or to only submit a spark. We also accept polished, co-authored poetry submissions.

Submissions for Issue Four closed on October 15, 2024. Our detailed timeline is below.

Read our interview with Jim Harrison to learn more about what we are looking for from submissions!

NOTE: Starting for Issue Two we will nominate for Best of Net. Please let us know if you don’t want to be considered for nomination. When nominating, this means we will share your email and name in conjunction with your co-author through the nomination form.

FAQ

What is your timeline for Issue Four?

• August 15, 2024: Submissions open
• October 15, 2024: Submissions close
• October 22 to November 1, 2024: Responses sent out
  • Poets accepted to write a flame will have one week to accept their spark.
• December 1, 2024: Flames due
• December 1 to 8, 2024: If needed, period for communication about edits between EIC and flame writer.
• December 15, 2024: Publication of Issue Four

What is a spark and what makes a good one?

• A spark is what we call the poetry fragment. This is the building-block for the flame.
• It is a rough draft of a poem or loosely-related sentences / phrases
• Descriptive language
• Specificity / oddity
• Give your co-author something to work with!
• Approximately 50-100 words
• Understand and welcome the fact that the final poem may have elements that are not from your own lived experience or identity.

What is a flame?

• A flame is a complete, polished poem written off of the given spark. It includes a title and is cohesive (or purposely not cohesive).

What are your basic guidelines for poems, sparks, and flames?

• Your standard stuff: interesting, makes us feel things, uses language in an awesome way, does multiple things at once
• No racism / excessive or hate-based violence
• We love shorter poems. Cut and shape the poem with full autonomy!
• As of right now, we don’t accept co-authored poems previously published in lit mags / journals. We do accept poems that have been posted on social media (Twitter / Instagram, for example).
• Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please let us know if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere as soon as possible.
• No Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools should be involved in any step of the poem, fragment, or flame creation.

How do you assess sparks and match flame writers to sparks?

• Please see our guidelines above for writing a spark. We assess based on that criteria. We match flame writers to sparks based on overlap of themes. We also have the mission to include as many poets as possible. Because poets may choose to either submit a spark and potentially write a flame or to only submit a spark, that does mean our submissions are unbalanced, i.e. we receive more sparks than poets who sign up to write flames.

What happens if I’m selected to write a flame?

• We will email you the anonymized spark for you to use to create a flame. You will have one week to accept your spark. Please see the timeline listed above.
• We want writers to build the spark into something that only they could create. To say “yes and” The spark is the inspiration, but it is not a blueprint, and we give you full permission to burn. Use it.
• We encourage writers to incorporate their own lived experiences and identities when writing their final poem, whether or not those elements may have been present in the original spark.

What happens after I submit my flame?

• We will communicate the final rejection / acceptance of the flame, possibly with requests for edits. This communication period is crucial. Please check the timeline above.
• Some issues that will cause us to not accept the flame include:
  • There is no connection between the fragment and the poem you produced.
  • We don’t receive a response from you within the allotted time frame.
  • There is a serious thematic issue with your poem.

Can I submit in multiple categories?

• Yes, you may submit one finished, co-authored poem and one spark. You may also check the box to write a poem based off of someone else’s spark.
• Please do not submit more than one finished poem and one spark during a single submission period.

How are bylines written?

• Both authors’ names will be included in the byline, but we will distinguish between the author who provided the fragment (spark) and the author who constructed the final poem (flame). For example: By Natalie Wolf (Flame) and Katherine Schmidt (Spark).
• Spark writers should understand that the final poem may have elements that are not from their own lived experiences or identities.

Do you have submission fees? Do you pay for published poems?

• We do not have submission fees, and at this time we do not pay for published poems.

Who can submit?

• Anyone 13 years old or older.

By submitting to us, you acknowledge and agree to the following:

• You are thirteen years of age or older.
• No Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools were used in any step of the poem creation.
• You hold the necessary rights to your work and, when applicable, are acting in accordance with your co-author.
• Upon acceptance, we request first serial rights for publication on our website. Upon publication, rights revert back to the authors.
• Your work will be published and archived in an online-only magazine.
• If you republish the poem elsewhere, we kindly request that you acknowledge Spark to Flame as the first publisher.
• We retain the right to make minor edits to your author bio to match our in-house style.