Editor for Boundless 2027
A Letter to All Poets
Dear Poets,
Thank you.
Thank you for all you do despite the exhaustion, the bills, the jobs that take up most of your days, the families that need you, the grief you carry, and the uncertainty of living in a world that often makes little room for poetry.
Thank you for writing anyway.
For finding a few minutes before work, after midnight, between appointments, while waiting for the laundry to finish, or sitting in your car before going inside the house.
Thank you for the poems nobody has read. The ones you have abandoned, returned to, torn apart, and written again. Thank you for the notebooks filled with words you may never share. They matter, too.
I know poetry doesn't always pay the rent. Sometimes it doesn't pay anything. I know what it's like to give so much of yourself to something you love and still wonder if anyone is listening.
But I am listening. We are listening.
Thank you for showing up at readings when only a handful of chairs are occupied. For buying another poet's book when you could barely afford your own. For encouraging someone who has never called themselves a poet to read their work aloud for the first time.
Thank you for keeping small presses alive, for supporting literary journals, for organizing readings in bookstores, libraries, classrooms, coffee shops, and wherever someone is willing to listen.
Thank you for writing in Spanish, English, Spanglish, and every language that carries the voices of your ancestors. Thank you for refusing to leave those voices behind.
And thank you for surviving the days when you cannot write. I hope you know that your worth has never depended on how many poems you produce, how many books you publish, or how many awards you receive.
After all these years of publishing, editing, reading manuscripts, and sharing spaces with poets, I still find myself moved by someone standing before a microphone with a trembling piece of paper in their hands.
There is so much happening in this world. So much cruelty, so much loss, so many reasons to close our eyes and turn away.
And still, somewhere, someone is writing a poem.
Maybe that someone is you.
I hope you keep writing. I hope you keep reading one another. I hope you find people who love your work enough to tell you when it needs more attention. I hope you find a home for your words, even if that home is a single person who needed to hear them.
And when you are tired, rest. The poem will be there when you return.
I am grateful to be among you, to have published so many of your voices, and to have been welcomed into your lives through your words.
Thank you for trusting us with your poems.
Thank you for giving poetry a place to live.
And most of all, thank you for being here.
With love, admiration, and solidarity,
Edward Vidaurre
Poet, Publisher & Director
FlowerSong Press
Edward Vidaurre is the author of ten collections of poetry. Vidaurre’s poems have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Avalon Literary Review, The Acentos Review, Poetrybay, as well as other journals and anthologies. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, TX Poet Laureate and publisher of FlowerSong Press and its sister imprint Juventud Press. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times and was a finalist for the state of Texas Poet Laureate. Vidaurre has been a judge for submissions for the Houston Poetry Festival, Director of Operations for the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, and editor of Cutthroat, a journal of the arts. His book Jazzhouse Won the Award of Merit 2020 by The Philosophical Society of Texas for Best Book of Poetry by a Texas Author. His book Pandemia & Other Poems was a finalist for the Writers' League of Texas Book Awards.
Boundless 2027 the Anthology of the Valley International Poetry Festival
Call for VIPF 2027 Submissions Has Opened
Boundless: The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology 2026 is now accepting submissions!
Youth Section Submissions Welcome from High School Students--Same Guidelines (Bio must denote Youth Submission)!
Deadline: E-mailed by Dec. 31, 2026 @ midnight.
Submissions: E-mail Submissions Only: BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com
Boundless will be published as a perfect bound edition with an ISBN and will be available at flowersongpress.com, valleypoetryfest.org and wherever books are sold.
As always, poets do not have to attend our festival or register for our festival in order to submit for publication. Poets will be able to purchase a copy of Boundless 2027 at a discounted price.
Previous editions include poets from across the U.S., Africa, Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Portugal, South America, Central America, Spain, and England.
Be part of this exciting edition!
GUIDELINES:
Submit up to three typewritten poems in a legible font.
Poems may be of any topic, any style
Poems may be any language. (We ask for a translation if it is not in English or Spanish)
Strict 30-line limit per poem, not including title and spaces.
Only E-mailed Submissions accepted. Submissions shipped by mail Will NOT Be Accepted!
E-mail submissions to BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com
No previously published poems--or translations of previously published poems--please, except from self-published chapbooks with limited distribution or Featured Poets.
DO NOT place your name or other identifying information on the poem itself.
Submit ONE e-mail with ONE attachment. Do not e-mail two separate attachments!
The cover letter as the message of the e-mail must include:
Your Name as you wish for it to be published.
Title of poems or first line for an untitled poem
E-mail address AND phone number
A short bio – 50 words or less – written in third person
We strongly prefer to communicate by e-mail: BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com
If you change your e-mail, let us know immediately.
A limited number of perfect-bound copies of the anthology will be available for purchase at the anthology release event and potentially thereafter. First copy for poets whose poetry is accepted: $10 (while supplies last.) All other copies, $20.
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¡Ya abrió la convocatoria del VIPF 2027!
¡Ya está abierta la convocatoria del Festival Internacional de Poesía del Valle del Río Grande 2027! (Cierra el 31 de diciembre)
¡Estamos aceptando trabajos para la antología Boundless: The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology 2026!
¡También aceptamos obras de alumnos de preparatoria (aprox. 14-18 años), sujetos a las mismas bases!
PLAZO: Envió por correo electrónico antes de las 23:59 h del 31 de diciembre de 2026
ENVÍO: Sólo en forma digital, dirigido a BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com
Boundless tendrá ISBN, se editará en encuadernación sin costura y estará disponible en flowersongpress.com, amazon.com y librerías.
Como de costumbre, los poetas podrán enviar sus obras sin necesidad de asistir o inscribirse en el festival. Debido a que ya no cobramos por la recepción de obras, los poetas podrán comprar un ejemplar de 2027 a precio de descuento.
En ediciones anteriores hemos contado con poetas de todo Estados Unidos y de África, América del Sur, Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Brasil, España, India, Inglaterra, Irán, Israel, México y Portugal. ¡Te invitamos a formar parte de esta excelente edición!
BASES:
Cada poeta podrá enviar hasta tres trabajos, mecanografiados en una fuente tipográfica legible.
La temática y el estilo de los poemas es libre.
Las obras pueden presentarse en cualquier idioma, incluso en español.
La extensión máxima será de 30 versos por poema.
Sólo se aceptarán envíos electrónicos. NO consideraremos ninguna obra enviada por correo regular. Los trabajos deben ser dirigidos a BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com.
Las obras deben ser inéditas, tanto en su idioma original como en la traducción, pero consideraremos poemas que hayan aparecido en plaquettes (folletos) de autor con distribución limitada.
El poema en sí NO incluirá el nombre del autor ni ningún otro dato personal.
Los participantes deberán enviar UN correo con UN adjunto. ¡No se debe mandar dos adjuntos distintos!
En el cuerpo del mail, que será la carta de presentación, deberá incluirse lo siguiente:
El nombre del poeta tal y como desea que sea publicado
El título de los poemas o el primer verso, si se tratare de un poema sin título
Dirección de correo electrónico
Número de teléfono
Una breve reseña biográfica —máximo 50 palabras— escrita en tercera persona y que se concentre en aspectos literarios. (En el caso de los poetas de la preparatoria, la biografía deberá indicar que se trata de un «Envío Juvenil».)
Tenemos una marcada preferencia por la comunicación electrónica a través de BoundlessAnthology@gmail.com. Si el poeta cambia de dirección electrónica, deberá comunicarlo de inmediato a los organizadores.