Dead Reckoning Collective is a veteran owned and operated publishing company. Our mission encourages literacy as a component of a positive lifestyle. Although DRC only publishes the written work of military veterans, the intention of closing the divide between civilians and veterans is held in the highest regard. By sharing these stories it is our hope that we can help to clarify how veterans should be viewed by the public and how veterans should view themselves.
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 that weaved those threads 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 longest 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 6MAY2024 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Dead Reckoning Collective will only accept submissions of previously unpublished poetry in English, or translations of poetry into English, for the prescribed prompts that will compose So Long: The Anthology of Poet Warriors [Volume III].
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.