Merion West: Fresh Look poetry essays Gold Star Program Gold Star Free Tip Jar Option

The Arts section of Merion West invites essays about poetry, to be titled “A Fresh Look at ____,” the blank representing a poet and one of her or his poems—for example, “A Fresh Look at Lydia Huntley Sigourney’s ‘Death of an Infant.’” The poem may be taken from any tradition within world culture and any era up through the end of the 20th century. The poet may be famous or one needing to be “rescued from history.”

The essay may also consider the elements of poetry—for example, “A Fresh Look at Syntax.”

Please read essays by contributing authors, by the Arts Editor of Merion West, Austin Allen James, or former arts editor Johnny Payne. Essays will typically fall within the 1,200–1,500-word range. We appreciate erudition and style. At the same time, we welcome a voice that invites a discerning general audience to explore poetry.

We do not publish previously published essays. While we permit simultaneous submissions, please inform us if your essay is accepted elsewhere. At that point, please decide which publication you desire your work to appear in. If it is somewhere other than Merion West, please withdraw your work from MW in Duotrope and notify us. The literary world runs on good etiquette.