Submissions Open for Third Veteran Poetry Anthology!

The GWOT ended for some of us with our enlistments and commissions, and it ended for others when they broke down the boardwalk in Bagram. It ended for others when direct action raids transitioned into advising roles and for many it ended when we watched HKIA fall and witnessed a country we fought for handed over to the Taliban overnight. This collection of poetry is about endings and where we go when it’s over.


“So Long” is the third volume of “the anthology of poet warriors.” If we have proved anything in the previous two installments, it is that warriors come in all forms, but there are common threads; these books serve as the rope formed from those threads weaved together in strength and solidarity.


“So Long” is a farewell to war, a chapter closing on romanticized violence and victimhood. It is the welcome party to a new beginning, a send off, a departure toward new definitions of self, of service, and of country. Whatever your role in the long war might have been, you have a seat at this campfire to tell your story. Poetry submissions in the spirit of this prompt will open on 22APRIL2024 at 12:00AM and close on 07MAY2024 at 11:59PM.


Dead Reckoning Collective will only accept sub­mis­sions of pre­vi­ously unpub­lished poetry in English, or translations of poetry into English, for the prescribed prompts that will compose So Long: The Anthology of Poet Warriors [Volume III]. Submissions require a non-refundable $10 (USD) fee to assist with administrative costs so that we are able to donate maximum profits to this year’s designated veteran charitable organization.


Submission Requirements:


  • Submissions open to military veterans only.
  • Must not exceed 3 poems.
  • Must be submitted in the following format:
    • Times New Roman
    • Size 12 font
    • Sin­gle spaced
    • All submitted work submitted in ONE .DOC document.  If you are submitting more than one poem, they must all be included on separate pages of a single .DOC document. If you submit more than ONE .DOC document, only the first one will be considered.
    • Must provide poet’s name, branch of service, email address, and mailing address on each page.
    • Must include brief biog­ra­phy. 2-3 sentences or approximately 50 words.
    • Submit final document via SUBMITTABLE

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