Call for submission – Magma 92, Ownership

Editors:  Paul Stephenson, Danne Jobin, and Kathy Pimlott

Closing date: 30th November 2024.

Submissions window for ‘Ownership' is open from 1 November 2024.
 

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Ownership

The British artist Michael Landy once destroyed everything he owned – toothbrush, love letters, his dad’s old sheepskin coat, all 7,000 items he owned – as part of his performance artwork ‘Break Down’. Catharsis? Personal sacrifice? Or an examination of consumerism? He said it was like witnessing his own funeral. Could you part with your stuff, all of it? Where would it leave you and the ability to live your life? Or are there objects that determine or define who you are. The British poet Adam Crothers has written a collection of poems called ‘The Culture of My Stuff’. What is your relationship to objects? 

Ownership. Some of us own property and pets, others don’t. This might be due to financial circumstances, or out of choice. Owning a house is assumed to the right thing to do – there is a pressure ‘to get on the ladder’. Supposedly. But are bricks and mortar all they’re cracked up to be. Maybe you aspire to own your own place, to have status, many bedrooms, a big garden – perhaps a flashy sports car – and if so, what, where and why? Or maybe you feel you own the area you inhabit anyway, regardless of a mortgage. Where are the intimate corners? Which stories of the place do you own? Do you ‘own’ an allotment and why?

Ownership once determined the right to vote, before universal suffrage was extended to those without property. But maybe today you don’t want the responsibility of upkeep, or perhaps you had a home once and gave it up voluntarily or owing to circumstance. Reneging on ownership might bring freedom, peace of mind. Does the desire to own things change over time or through loss. Are there things you once owned then disowned? Do we need less as we get older, things becoming superfluous? Or do you hoard? As Marie Kondo says, things need to ‘spark joy’. Have you audited your life’s belongings, done a spring clean, had a major cull?

Ownership also implies taking care of something, looking after it, maintaining its quality. But this might come at a cost. What does this imply and what demands does it make on the owner. We normally own property not people. But are we sometimes overly possessive of others, especially those we love? Are people owned by their psyche or ego, possessed by spirits? In some parts of the world, people are commodities, belonging to other people, enterprises, regimes. Ownership implies a power imbalance.

Ownership can apply to the non-tangible – to the ownership of ideas and beliefs, some of which might not be shared by others, or to a certain behaviour, demeanour, capacity for something, attitude, walk - hence the catwalk call ‘Own it!’. Does owning something also mean showing it off, standing behind it, working it. Equally ownership might be about accepting a diagnosis or illness and living with the conditions – an involuntarily ownership, even medical or genetic inheritance. What does this imply? What is the language of ownership, from banking and real estate to medicine and philosophy? 

Ownership also enables and restricts the places we can go freely. Whether it’s the public-private urban spaces or river promenades that are owned by corporations and locked at night, or the country paths skirting and dissecting fields and farms. In some cases we need to stand up to fight against unlawful ownership, be it of weapons or dangerous dogs, or unpopular ownership, such as buildings that blight the landscape or second homes given their impact on small communities and local economies. What kind of emotions does ownership invoke – guilt, regret, anger, jealousy, disappointment, or else, joy, relief, peace of mind? How does ownership affect your life? 

Who are your idols – poets, singers, painters, thinkers, novelists? To what extent do you own them, and they own you? Have you come to disown them and if so, when and why? In the case of poets, have you used their work in your own? Is this dialogue, inspiration, conversation or ownership? And on the subject of writing, of course, AI brings new challenges, questions and conundrums when It comes to authorship and ownership. Are you embracing AI in your writing, as are the poets published in the new AI Literary Review.

Everything Michael Landy owned was ‘destroyed and granulated, bagged up and sent to landfill’. He was left with just one thing – debt. Destroying his possessions with the help of 10 people and an assembly line cost him 100,000 pounds.

We look forward to reading your poems!

Paul Stephenson

Danne Jobin

Kathy Pimlott

HOW TO SUBMIT 

• The submissions window for ‘Ownership' is open 1st – 31st November 2024
• We welcome poems that have not been previously published in print, online, or broadcast.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission or contact us if it is accepted for publication somewhere else first.
• You may submit up to 4 previously unpublished poems: ONLINE via Submittable in a single Word or PDF document, OR BY POST to Magma 92 Submissions, 23 Pine Walk, Carshalton, SM5 4ES. Postal submissions are accepted from the UK and Ireland only. Postal submissions are not acknowledged until a decision is made.

THE EDITORS

Paul Stephenson’s debut collection Hard Drive was published by Carcanet in 2023. It was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and Polari Book Prize. He has three pamphlets: Those People (Smith/Doorstop, 2015), The Days that Followed Paris (HappenStance, 2016), and Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). He co-edited Magma issue 70 ‘Europe’ with Susannah Hart.

Danne Jobin has read at the festival Poetry in Aldeburgh, Datableeder, and for the87press. Their pamphlet manuscript was highly commended by the Disabled Poets Prize 2024, and individual poems have been published in Magma, harana poetry and Datableed. Danne holds a PhD in English, lives in Kent, and has a creative coaching business and YouTube channel called Poetology.

Kathy Pimlott has a collection, the small manoeuvres, (Verve) and three pamphlets (Emma Press) After the Rites and Sandwiches, Elastic Glue​ and Goose Fair Night. She lives in Seven Dials, Covent Garden where she has worked in community activism for many years.

MAGMA POETRY COMPETITION 2024/25

Is now open for entries in both categories  

The Judge’s Prize – poems of 11 to 50 lines

The Editors’ Prize – poems of up to 10 lines

Deadline 31 January 2025 11.59pm GMT

This year the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines will be judged by Amy Acre, whose debut collection, Mothersong (Bloomsbury, 2023) was shortlisted for the John Pollard Poetry Prize, and named a Book of the Year in the Telegraph and Financial Times. She runs Bad Betty Press.

The Editors’ Prize is judged by a panel of Magma Editors and is for poems of up to 10 lines. The prize money for both competitions is the same, so double your chances and try your luck at both.

First prize for the Judge’s and Editors’ Prize is £1000, second prize £300 and third prize £150. 

The three prize-winning poems from each category will be published in Magma and there will also be five special mentions for each of the Judge’s Prize and Editors’ Prize categories.  All winning and commended poems will be published online on the Magma website. Winning and commended poets will be invited to read their poems at a Magma Competition event in Spring 2025.

Last years' winners are published in Magma 89 Performance Issue which you can purchase for £8.50 here. All winning and commended poems are published in a free-to-download PDF here.

The entry fees are £5 for the first poem, £4 for the second poem and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees: £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second poem, and £2.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. 

You can subscribe to Magma from £22.00 via our Get Magma page.
 

HOW TO ENTER VIA SUBMITTABLE

• You may enter as many poems as you like in each category, but you must submit to each category in separate documents. 
• Please upload the poems in one document for each category. Please name the documents Judge’s Prize or Editors’ Prize as applicable and submit all of the poems for that category in the relevant document.   
• Do not include your name or any other identifying marks on the poems themselves.    
• Pay for all entries by picking the appropriate payment amount for total poems submitted. Subscriber and non-subscriber entries will be cross-referenced against our subscriber list and incorrectly paid entries may be disqualified. You can subscribe to Magma from £22.00 via our Get Magma page but you must do this before you enter. 
• The entry fees are £5 for the first poem, £4 for the second and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees: £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second, and £2.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. 
• The competition closes at 11.59pm GMT on 31 January 2025.

GENERAL

• No alterations can be made after receipt, nor fees refunded. 
• All poems must not have been previously published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online, broadcast, or have won or been placed in another competition at any time.
• The judge’s and editors’ decisions are final and no correspondence can be entered into. No entrant may win more than one prize in each section. 
• Should the named judge be unable to proceed, we aim to substitute an alternative judge of equivalent standing as a poet. 
• Prizewinners will be notified individually in April 2025. The results will also be published on the Magma Poetry website after the prize-giving event. 
• Copyright of each entry remains with the author, but Magma Poetry has the right to first publication of the winning poems in print and/or online within six months of the competition deadline. 
• Entry implies acceptance of all the rules. Failure to comply with the rules will result in disqualification.