Pretty Owl Poetry, a Pittsburgh-based online literary arts journal, is introducing a new prompt series: POPcraft: Tarot for Poets.
Every other week a new writing prompt will be featured on the website and will focus on a Tarot spread readers can use for writing inspiration. A play on the mystery and ritual of witchcraft, POPcraft invites writers to submit their own Tarot spreads, and an accompanying prompt to be featured on the site.
“The idea behind POPcraft is essentially to do Tarot readings for a poem,” said Kimberly Grabowski Strayer, creator and curator of the new series. “Tarot spreads can take almost infinite forms and can reflect the person creating them so closely, I felt like this was a resource we could really be taking advantage of as a community as a form of generating poems.”
Prompt submissions should be original and unpublished. The journal is looking for the disruption and surprise of Tarot combined with the enigmatic logic of a poem’s creation. Elements of both should be present in submissions. How they come together is up to the submitter. It is known that a large intersection of Tarot and writing is ritual and the journal editors encourage submitters to be precise and concrete with the procedure of their prompt. Submitters are welcomed and encouraged to send photos of Tarot card spreads using their favorite decks.
An example of the first prompt, “The Three Souls,” created by POPcraft’s curator Kimberly Grabowski Strayer is available on the Pretty Owl Poetry website. To hear more about POPcraft from its creators and a Tarot card aficionado, listen to the seventh episode of the journal’s monthly podcast: POPcast, which is co-hosted by Kelly Lorraine Andrews and B. Rose Kelly. All episodes can be found at https://prettyowlpoetry.com/popcast/.
To stay up-to-date on POPcraft and other Pretty Owl news, follow the journal on all social media: @prettyowlpoetry.
Pretty Owl Poetry is a feminist quarterly journal that publishes the visual arts, traditional and nontraditional forms, fiction masquerading as poetry, and work that does not snuggly fit into a specific genre, all with a lyrical quality. We’re especially interested in work centered around the bodily experiences of womxn, nonbinary, and trans folx. We’re committed to publishing underrepresented and marginalized voices and encourage submission from such artists. Learn more about our submission guidelines on our website.