ANNOUNCEMENTS:

*** CALL FOR SONNETS ***

Illuminations of the Fantastic is looking for new sonnets to publish! Invented in the late Middle Ages, the sonnet remains incredibly popular among poetry readers--but what about poets themselves? This is a great opportunity to stand out in one of the proudest forms of poetic tradition. Skip the endless lines of free verse and become a sonneteer!

Qualifying sonnets will be published in the next issue of the magazine (Spring 2025). We're looking for sonnets that are finely crafted, clearly argued, powerful in image, and wonderful to read aloud. We ask that you use one prompt— incorporate the theme of Nature into your subject.

Using AI-generators in any capacity whatsoever is disqualifying. You may not believe we can tell, but we can. AI-written verse is very easy to spot. Please please don't bother. To quote Ted Chiang, author of Arrival, "The task that generative AI has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."

Step 1 — Read the above notice. Write the sonnet. Make it really good.

Step 2 — email us at illuminationsfantastic (at) gmail (dot) com — use the subject line “Call For Sonnets”

Step 3 — if accepted we’ll send you a link and we’ll go from there!

‘POETRY CORNER’ WILL BECOME ‘THE SONNET CORNER’

The IF editors have decided that The Short Poem Corner, which debuted in 2023, will become The Sonnet Corner in the next edition of the magazine.

We believe a broad variety of poetic forms is desirable, but it has become difficult to read through the sheer volume of submissions, ninety-nine percent of which are free verse. The online poetry community has many outlets for free verse, so many that, while we would prefer not to rule them out, we are confident the best of these poems will find a home elsewhere.

As for Illuminations of the Fantastic, we have decided on a singular form—the sonnet—to advocate and elevate above all others.

Poets, searching for the rare journal that not only accepts but invites poetry in traditional forms, can now put Illuminations of the Fantastic at the top of their list. Invented in the late Middle Ages, the sonnet remains very popular. It has bequeathed a unique epithet on its writers—to compose sonnets is to be a sonneteer.

We now invite you to submit the best (single) sonnet you have inside you, written anew, crafted with care, beautiful and true.

Disclaimer: by submitting to Illuminations of the Fantastic Magazine you acknowledge you will not submit AI-generated prose or verse, nor convert free-verse poems into sonnets using AI.

Join the sonneteers!

—The Editors

chief editor:
SAM STEPHENS
managing editor:
PHILIP J. PALACIOS
associate editor:
NATHAN GILMORE
associate editor:
DIANA MASSENGALE
art consultant:
EVANGELINA STEPHENS

published by:
ILLUMINATIONS OF THE FANTASTIC
founders:
SAM STEPHENS & PHILIP J. PALACIOS
city location:
NASHVILLE, TN
publishing years:
2020-present
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