Black Bough Poetry Christmas-Winter 2026 Anthology (poetry submission opportunity!)

Jan 28

Written By Benne van der Velde

Following on from their six previous Christmas-winter editions, Black Bough Poetry will be publishing a new, seventh volume for Christmas 2026! The editorial team are Matthew M C Smith and new guest sub-editor, Paul Short.

They welcome poems on all cultural and folk traditions around this time of year and everything to do with the season (Diwali, solstice, Hannukah, Mari Lwyd, Christmas, your childhood, memories, etc.).

The submission period when they will accept your work is Wed 28th January to Sunday 1st Feb 2026. Poems before or after this date won't be read.

The team is looking for imagistic, suggestive poems, following the idea of 'less is more'. They publish vivid poems that avoid cliché and have subtlety. They rarely publish rhyming poetry.

Usual submission guidelines:

a) Poets are invited to submit three short poems, max 120 words., each These must be previously unpublished. No cribbing, plagiarism or use of AI. On the naughty list, ten year ban.

If you have bought their 2025 Christmas anthology, you can submit up to five poems. Please attach a photo of your book and you can submit up to five.

b) Please send poems in Garamond font, size 11, single spaced, within the submission window. They welcome bilingual versions of the same poem (eg. Welsh and English versions).

c) They prefer punctuated poems. Please embolden your titles.

d) Please send a short biography (up to 25 words) in the body of the e-mail and your poems by Microsoft Word attachment. Social media handles too.

e) Special e-mail for this edition is winterbough@outlook.com This e-mail only.

Read the rest of the guidelines right here! I (Benne) have submitted 2 poems. Join me, with up to 3? Cheers!

Twitter: @blackboughpoems Fb: BlackBoughpoetry Instagram/ Threads: Black Bough poetry

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Benne van der Velde

After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch slam poetry scene in the early and mid 2000s (with wins in 7 cities and eventually a place in the Nationals of 2012) and performances at the Lowlands-, Uitmarkt- and Parade festivals a/o, Benne successfully made the transition from the stage to paper by signing his first publishing deal in 2005. Since then 4 publishing houses (kleine Uil, Douane, Nadorst and Stanza) released volumes of his poetry. For a 5th (Passage) he co-edited an anthology of satirical/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode.

As a member of the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’ he helped to organize (and was part of/presented) cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, making a movie, monthly poetry stages in his hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg), Rotterdam (De Poetsclub) and Nijmegen (Late Letteren Live) + a talent show for bands.

In 2002 and 2003 he studied ‘writing for performance’ at the vocational university of the Arts in the city of Utrecht (HKU) and as a result saw 3 of his theater plays make it to a stage. Writer Hiekelien van den Herik and he co-wrote a knight spectacle play complete with real choreographed sword fights, men in heavy plate armor and more great stuff like that. Theater-/enactment group Ridderspoor performed said play in 2004 and 2005 at Het Archeon, during De Kasteeldagen and at an Elfia-fantasy fair. He also gave numerous poetry and rap workshops at schools and other institutions. There were a lot of collabs too, for example voice-over work for a Rock Opera, a monumental art project for which he partnered up with the artist Erwin Adema and thrice alongside the R.J.S.O (The Rotterdam Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Benne has been an editor for several literary magazines (Krakatau, Renaissance and Op Ruwe Planken), at one time he and his wife owned a secondhand bookstore, he’s been the official poet laureate for his hometown of Vlaardingen and released his first and only Dutch rap-EP in 2011. In 2012 he rapped his way into the finals of Art Rocks. An EP with songs in English followed in 2021. A year later he started translating Dutch musical and lyrical classics from Dutch into English, and vice versa. Some of his short sci-fi and fantasy stories have found their way to medium related websites, magazines and anthology’s.

According to the poet himself rewriting his own poetry, lyrics and prose in English somehow feels like the next logical step in his career, a way to open up to the world at large. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying. So far several of these translations have been published in Bebarbar, Hare’s paw, Festivalforpoetry, Punt Volat, The Dewdrop, The Dillydoun Review and Months to Years a/o.

In everyday (some claim real) life he worked as an industrial tank cleaner, in pest control, on a garbage truck, driving a forklift, in a chemical waste facility, on a Ferry and 10 years as a bartender in a cannabis bar. At the time of writing this resume he can be found at home or in the hospital battling throat cancer. He’s been off the Herb since 2008, has a wife, 2 dogs, mild anxiety issues and likes to read every sci-fi and fantasy classic he can find.

www.linkedin.com/in/benne-van-der-velde-8b17a7296

The poet/lyricist and author Rob Chrispijn: ‘Benne writes sentences that stick; clean, dark and intense. This way a poem lasts!’

The poet Philip Hoorne on the website Poetry rapport: ‘There’s a genius hiding in Benne van der Velde, those are the Good Tidings of today. Amen.’

https://www.doubledutchmagazine.com