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The Alchemy Spoon (Gold Star Program) Gold Star

The story of The Alchemy Spoon is borrowed from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, with the spoon representing the importance of balancing creativity and career. We encourage poets to allow the oils of creativity to fall from their spoons in exchange for the pleasure of creating and having their poetry published
The Alchemy Spoon is a platform for poetry without prejudice especially of race, gender or age. We are particularly interested to invite poems from new phase poets. These are poets who have come late to poetry, often following retirement, or a life-change.


The work of new phase poets often has stunning depth and perspective reflecting experiences accumulated from work and life. These poets might be classed among those who have been dubbed the 'lost generation of talent'. Abid Hussain, Diversity Director at the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council), says: ‘How many would-be working-class artists, artistic directors, choreographers, composers and curators decided to enter accounting, legal, medical and engineering professions instead?’ The Alchemy Spoon aims to demonstrate that this talent was not lost but waiting for a reappraisal of priorities, an unleashing of latent creativity, waiting for its time. The magazine appears three times a year online, with print copy available through ‘print on demand’.

We welcome submissions from both established and unpublished poets, and will devote a significant proportion of each issue to new voices, particularly new phase voices.
We look forward to reading your submissions.

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Issue 14 Free Tip Jar Option

Open
Closes on Thursday, October 31, 2024 11:59 PM GMT Standard Time (in 21 days).

Please submit up to 3 brilliant, unpublished, original poems this issue is unthemed and we welcome poems up to 40 lines on any subject.


All your poems must be in one word document with a new page for each poem.
The title of each poem you submit (titles are called a piece in the submission platform) MUST be entered in the appropriate boxes in Duosuma.
By submitting your work you give permission for The Alchemy Spoon to publish that work and confirm that it has not been published previously in books, magazines, webpages or on social media.

  • Name your document: issue 14-intials-lastname
  • Poems should be in 12 point Times New Roman with a maximum 40 lines not including the title
  • Our pages have a page width of 16cm and print width of 11.5cm (4.5 inches) between margins so poems with very long lines can be difficult to format.
  • Follow the instructions on the Duosuma Submission Manager website to submit
  • Your poems, must be in one word-compatible document
  • Please enter a 50 word bio in the third person in the Duosuma Form
  • Start a new page for each poem
  • We are only able to accept submissions from those over 18
  • We do not accept any poems generated by AI
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted but please tell us straightaway if a poem is accepted for publication elsewhere
  • We aim for a speedy turn-round and will respond to every submission but we don’t offer individual feedback
  • No changes can be made after submission
  • Authors retain all rights. However, if a poem is subsequently published elsewhere, please acknowledge that it first appeared in The Alchemy Spoon
  • Our submission window for Issue 14 will be open 1st - 31st October 2024
  • If you have a poem published in Issue 13 we ask that you wait for Issue 15 before submitting again