Editor Interview: Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast

Poetry dedicated podcast

Tupelo Press
The Paris Review
Button Poetry
The New Yorker
Graywolf Press

A.E. Stallings
Olivia Gatwood
Safia Elhillo
Billy Collins
Dana Gioia
Ada Limón

Selected poets for the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast are not only featured on the podcast, but also on ViewlessWings.com with poetry pages. Submitted poetry episodes are interleaved with interviews of accomplished poets including A.E. Stallings, Olivia Gatwood, Yanyi, Dana Gioia, Safi Elhillo, and more. Selected poets get to share their voice and their words, and join a growing community of Viewless Wings poets.

Submit work that excels both in written an aural forms. Practice reciting your poetry because selected poets are required to send a quality audio recording of the poem. Poems come to life when recited by the author, which is what makes the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast a unique opportunity for poets.

The ideal submission is a medium length poem that can be recited in 60-120 seconds. We have accepted poems that are extremely short, some of the world's most famous poems are short, but typically prefer poems that are in the 60-120 second range. Selected poems need to work when recited. A concrete poem that would be difficult to re-imagine in audio form, for example, would be less likely to be selected. Imagine your poem being heard and not seen, is it a compelling listen?

Compiling high quality audio for podcast episodes is time consuming. It's extremely important that poets carefully read and follow the instructions, and if selected are responsive to the requested deadlines.

For submitted poetry, we care about the quality of the poem, not cover letters or publishing history. Viewless Wings has been the first selection for several of our poets. (Note: we do not use a submissions process for our interviews which are focused on established poets with at least one published book.)

We review all poems for a given submissions window and create a series of shortlists before finalizing on 5-7 poems for each submitted poetry episode.

A day in the life consists of reviewing submitted poetry, reading books for upcoming interview subjects, preparing interview questions, conducting and editing interviews, and experimenting with new ways to promote Viewless Wings and the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

We do not edit accepted pieces unless there is a typo / mistake (and we are unlikely to accept a submission that is not error free).

We nominate poems for the Pushcart Prize.