The Premise

Born of a desire to bring the many members of the North Texas poetry community into conversation with each other, The Common Language Project places participants in the same room and turns them loose to dream. United by a list of shared words and confined only by the space of a page, the poems of the project illuminate a collection of radically divergent experiences that sing, simmer and singe. Together, these poems give us a place to come together, somewhere from which we can start, from which we can thrive.

This year, we invite you to connect into networks, analog and digital, microscopic and macro-engineered. From the cells in our bodies to the smart phones in our hands, networks fill our lives with meaning, richness and beauty. Chain letters and congregations share secrets; the weave of textiles can bear witness to the tapestries of our families. Show us the truths of fractals, find the hidden meanings of street maps, trace the untold stories of spiderwebs. 

Guidelines

Submissions are open to anyone. Thirty winners will be selected for publication in the Common Language Project 2023 anthology, which will be available for free download. Hard copies will be available for purchase. Winners will also be invited to share their work at the Common Language Project reading during the Dallas Is Lit! literary festival, held May 13th, 2023.

• SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.
• All thirty keywords must be used.
• The keywords may be used in any order but without changes in tense or form (for example, using "lustrous" instead of "luster" or "smile" instead of "smiling" would not count toward the thirty keywords). Changes in capitalization are fine.
• The poem must be no more than thirty lines of text in length (excludes title).
• Submissions will be presented to our judges anonymously. Please do not include your name anywhere in the text of your submission document.
• The Common Language Project is open to all ages, and we hope all ages of readers and writers will participate in the contest and read the anthology. Work with extreme language, violence or adult content will not be considered.
  
• No multiple submissions. Only the first submission will be accepted.
• You may not re-submit without invitation.

Submission Formatting

In a contest where restrictions are part of the pleasure of the work, we're setting formatting guidelines this year to help make sure that if your poem is chosen for publication, there is minimal disturbance to how it appears on the page as a result of formatting. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

• Poems should be submitted in Times New Roman font, 11 point.
• Page margins should be set to 2-inches on the left and right, and 1-inch top and bottom. If you're working in Microsoft Word, this is the "Wide" margin setting (under the "Layout" menu); if you're working in Google Docs, you can change the settings under "Page Setup."

30 Winners Receive

• Publication in the Common Language Project 2023 anthology, and 2 contributor copies
• $100 cash prize
• Invitation to read their work at the Common Language Project reading during the Dallas Is Lit! literary festival, held May 13th, 2023