Call for Submissions – Magma 96: The Antarctic

Submissions window open 1st March – 31st March 2026

***********************************************************************

The Antarctic

There is a continuous, mutual impact between the Antarctic and our daily lives, yet the majority of us will never physically be there. Imagined centuries before it was discovered, Antarctica is an idea as much as a geographical place. Owned by no one, it belongs to us all.

Documenting her personal journey to the Antarctic, writer Jenni Diski described it as a place 

so untroubled by itself that the heart ached… truly a dream place where melting and movement seem[ed] only to increase immutability. Nothing stays the same, but nothing changes.

Antarctica is a paradox, a blank space, a white continent that harbours a dark subglacial world hidden from sunlight for millions of years, a place where all time zones converge, a place of connection, a natural laboratory, an archive in the ice. 

This distant frozen landscape has been storied variously by mythic imagination, heroic endeavour and extraordinary scientific discovery. We encourage you to plunge its hidden depths through your poetry. We are excited to read poems which are formally inventive and full of wonder, poetry that takes us on a journey, not just to the Ice, but to a hoped-for future or a place within. 

In the words of poet, activist and educator Nikki Giovanni, 

We have sent photographers, engineers, other science folk to Antarctica. It’s time for writers to serve… We need poetry. We need dreams.

Cheryl Moskowitz, Branwell Roberts, Elizabeth Lewis Williams                                                                                  Editors Magma 96: The Antarctic

Cheryl Moskowitz is a US-born, London-based writer and educator, and an editor at Magma Poetry. Her poetry collection The Fossil Issue is forthcoming from Black Cat Poetry Press in 2027. Wayward Thoughts, a CD of her poetry with lutenist Sam Brown, was released in 2025 (EPFH Records). A Proper Goodbye (Troika Books), a middle grade novel, will be published 2026.

Elizabeth Lewis Williams, PhD is a Norwich-based writer and teacher and the author of two books of Antarctic poetry: Deception Island and Erebus (Story Machine 2021, 2022). She is currently completing a work of creative non-fiction that brings together British Antarctic research and personal history.

Branwell Roberts is a British poet living and working in nipaluna/Hobart. They write poetry about Antarctica history, working towards a creative practice PhD at the University of Tasmania. Branwell’s Antarctic writing has recently appeared in The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists anthology Tales from the Poles.

HOW TO SUBMIT 

• The submissions window for ‘The Antarctic' is open 1st March – 31st March 2026
• 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 document, OR BY POST to Magma 96 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.
• Please read full Submissions Guidelines here.