Vessels of Light Journal, Summer 2026: Message in a Bottle
For our forthcoming Summer issue, we found inspiration in poet Edward Hirsch’s critique of poetry in his critic, “Heartland” at the foot of the free-flowing coast where correspondences wash up on our own personal heartlands. We are inviting writers to send out their most intimate work, poems, essays, and now for the first time, short stories and handwritten letters that are teeming with a living hope, determined to reach its secret addressee.
“Imagine you have gone down to the shore and there, amidst the other debris—the seaweed and rotten wood, the crushed cans and dead fish— you find an unlikely looking bottle from the past. You bring it home and discover a message inside. This letter, so strange and disturbing, seems to have been making its way toward someone for a long time, and now that someone turns out to be you.”
— From Edward Hirsch’s article, “Heartland”
WHAT WE ARE ACCEPTING:
POETRY, ESSAYS, SHORT STORIES, AND LETTERS
Please see vesselsoflightlit.com for specific submission guidelines.
