About E-Issues

While we all love the feel of a thick book in our hands--the smell of the glue, the heft of each 40 pound box from the printer--putting out two cohesive print issues each year is also limiting. We want artwork and essays to relate to each tribute’s theme, reviews to fit neatly on a page, introductions to be tidy, professional, timeless. Moreover, six months is a long time to wait between issues. It's a wonder you don't forget about us.

Occasionally we think--why not go quarterly? We could print only one conversation per issue, cut the poems in half... But then it comes time to ship, and we remember that twice as many issues would mean twice as much postage, twice as many papercuts, another twelve hours in a dark room stuffing envelopes, peeling labels and watching Porky's III for the fourth time.

Electronic issues allow us to broaden our scope, and our reach--after all, our goal isn't to make a profit, it's to make sure great poems get read. Posting PDFs online and emailing them to subscribers is all but free; it just takes a little labor and some bandwidth. We can reach people who choose not to buy our print issues, and we can include material that we're unable to print.

E-Issues will appear every March and September, and will hopefully reach at least 5,000 people. Their format will be malleable, but each should include the following:

Book Features

A series of poems from a recently published collection. Though the first issue's feature was a book Rattle had a hand in publishing--Erik Campbell's Arguments for Stillness--that will probably never again be the case. We want to showcase representative samples of books that work well as a whole, including 4-7 poems, publisher summaries, and an interview with the author.

If you're an author or publisher who'd like to be featured in a forthcoming E-Issue, email Timothy Green (), or send a copy of the book highlighting which 4-7 poems you'd like considered to:

RATTLE
12411 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604

While we prefer a sequence of poems that has not appeared in any other journals, they may have--just be sure to note where they appeared, and affirm that the rights are yours. Be sure to include contact information. Should we chose to feature your book, we will need additional materials (images, bio, etc.). Books submitted will not be returned--instead, they will be added to the E-Review request pool. Payment is the exposure. Hopefully some of the several thousand readers will like what they read, and buy the book.

Essays on Poetry

We want to keep the essays in our print issues relating to the current tribute theme, but for the e-issues, we're interested in anything that relates to poetry. Essays can be any length, thanks to the online format, and we prefer more informal, narrative essays that are entertaining to more rigorous academic work. The most common topic will be the craft of poetry, but anything goes, if it relates.

Artwork

A full-color series of paintings or photographs. To submit, email me low-resolution jpegs, and we'll ask for high-res before publishing.

Print Issue Previews

Selected material from the upcoming issue of Rattle. Obviously, we're hoping to whet your appetite enough to order a copy, but at the same time we're just proud of what we do, and want to share.

These electronic issues are only as successful as they are fun to read. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email Timothy Green. Full-color, high-resolution printouts--ink-jet on heavy paper--are available for $5 (to pay for shipping, handling, and ink) but we encourage you to print them out yourself. The pdf is designed to print well on standard paper, in color or black and white, and you can easily print only those pages you're interested in.

Please spread the word, and in the meantime, we hope you enjoy.