news | back issues | about plain spoke | submission guidelines | links
current issue

Plain Spoke is a quarterly literary magazine project looking for works with a very specific, clear, plain-spoken voice. We won’t publish anything that speaks for all of mankind. We won’t publish love poems for the sake of love. We don’t like the over-complicated. Say something simple and original and beautiful and gritty and true, write down the heavier things. But don’t try to make it apply to the entire world. Let it be loud in its own little universe, craft it well, and we’ll probably love it. Who we are: We are poets, painters, basket weavers, musicians, writers, moonshiners, photographers, and other plain folk who recognize the value of nature, the value of our own humanity, and the charm of where we come from. We are not ashamed to be plain-spoken. Editorial Staff: Cindy Kelly:  Managing Editor  Troy Cherrington:  Poetry Editor Joshua Diamond:  Fiction Editor Brooklyn Copeland:  Reader Shaun Barcalow:  Reader Cathy J. Kelly:  Reader & Publisher What we want: poetry, short fiction, black and white photography, black and white folk art, written-down oral histories, memoir, your great-grandmother’s recipes, geneology, music reviews, the old stories, river-mountain folklore, family stories, old journal excerpts, old ephemera, old wives tales, train stories, coal miner stories, nostalgia, stories we thought were lost, interviews with whittlers, quilters, and moonshiners, Appalachian Trail stories, ghost stories, regional humor, superstition stories, poetry of place, creative non-fiction, stories of Native Americans, grass roots stuff, old ballad lyrics, UMWA stories, memories, VFW stories, hillbilly stories, Civilian Conservation Corps Stories, War stories, Depression stories, Trolley Park stories, flood stories, ephemera, and other rich, River-Mountain goodness.