About

What: Founded in 2005 with the mission of putting literature and art on the streets, Broadsided publishes visual-literary collaborations as free posters for anyone to download and print. Special features punctuate the regular publications.

From 2005 – 2023, we published monthly: one original collaboration on the first of every month (with some bonus publications thrown in).  In 2023, we will publish biannual folios of broadsides, published in November and (we think!) April.

How: Writing is chosen from open submissions.  Art is created by a pool of artists invited to the project who “dibs” selected writing and create visual responses.  Distribution is managed by you, the grass-roots “Vectors” who print the letter-sized pdfs and post them in your neighborhoods.

Why: We want to foster creative connection between the arts and help YOU put words and art on the streets of your communities.

Submit/Contact/Support

We’d love to consider your work.  Please see our Submission Guidelines.

We are on social media, of course, and we’d love to hear from you.  You can also email us at broadsided@gmail.com

Broadsided Press is classified as a public charity with tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). By donating to Broadsided Press you are making a charitable contribution tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Broadsided Press EIN: 87-3187430

Donate now using the form on our Support page or through the Broadsided Press Give Lively donation page.

History

Before paperbacks and pocket books, before blogs, there were broadsides.

Every day, we walk past billboards for shops and car dealers, for churches and insurance, but our streets, our daily lives among each other, are missing something. They’re missing thought. Dialogue. Opinion. Ideas.

Loosely defined as single sheets of paper printed on one side, broadsides were the most diverse form of brief, single-occasion publishing before the Civil War. Although broadsides were first introduced in England, they became a prime means of communication in the United States.

Announcements, advertisements, song lyrics, commentaries, cartoons, and poems were printed and posted in towns across the nation. Later, Harlem Renaissance, Concrete, and Beat writers claimed the broadside as a below-the-radar way to get their words out onto the streets.

We want to continue the tradition.

Here. Now.

Broadsided is equal parts traditional literary journal (seeking the best submissions of short work), ekphrastic without-a-net innovation (neither artist nor writer have input on the final product), and grassroots guerilla activism (you get the work out on the streets).

• Through each month’s “Collaborators’ Q&A” we lift the curtain on the creative process behind each publication and offer artist and writer a chance to respond to their experience (this is the first time they are in touch).
• On social media we feature images of broadsides “in the field” and stories of how they got there (in fact, we would love to hear your story).
• At “Bsided Responds” we offer a space where artists are featured as first responders to questions or issues of our moment.
• Our “Teach” section offers inspiration and practical nuts-and-bolts lesson plans for any who wish to use our (free!) publications in the classroom.
• “Broadsides to Books” brings you mini-reviews and a bridge between broadside and a larger body of creative work.
• “Broadsided News,” collects all calls for submission, book reviews, and, well, news!

Editors/Masthead

Elizabeth Bradfield, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, is the author of Toward Antarctica, Once Removed, Approaching Ice, and Interpretive Work. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, Orion and elsewhere (www.ebradfield.com). Liz, who lives on Cape Cod, divides her time between work as a naturalist and an Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Brandeis University. Why Broadsided? Well, the idea of literary/visual collaboration has always fired her up. Also, it was pretty hard to put your hands on a literary journal in Anchorage, where she was living when she dreamed up the project. She wants poems out in the world, escaping their perfect-bound covers.

Alexandra Teague, Senior Editor, is the author of the novel The Principles Behind Flotation and three books of poetry—Or What We’ll Call Desire, The Wise and Foolish Builders, and Mortal Geography, winner of the 2009 Lexi Rudnitsky Prize and 2010 California Book Award. She is also co-editor, with Brian Clements and Dean Rader, of the  anthology Bullets into Bells:  Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence in the U.S. The recipient of a Stegner Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Alexandra is a Professor in the MFA program at University of Idaho.  Alexandra joined the Broadsided editorial team in 2010.

Miller Oberman, Editor, is the author of The Unstill Ones. He completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Connecticut in 2017, where he studied trans-temporal poetics, translation theory, and Old English poetry. Miller teaches writing at Eugene Lang College in New York City, and his poems and translations have appeared in The London Review of Books, Poetry, the Boston Review, and Tin House. Miller teaches poetry workshops with Brooklyn Poets, and lives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn with his wife, rock singer Louisa Solomon of The Shondes. Miller joined the editorial team in 2018 as a guest editor, and in 2019 honored us by joining permanently.

Millian Giang Pham, Arts Editor, is an artist and educator based in Alabama. She works with text, images, objects, installations, and performances. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in Canada, Pakistan, Korea, and across the United States. She holds a BFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Florida. She currently teaches foundations art as an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Auburn University.  Millian joined Broadsided as an artist in 2018 and became Arts Editor in 2022.

Jennifer Elise Foerster, Translations Editor, is a poet, writer, and teacher. She has published three poetry books and served as Associate Editor for When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020), and has been published in numerous journal publications and anthologies. Her 2013 book Leaving Tulsa was a finalist for the shortlist of the 2014 PEN/Open Book Award. Jennifer joined the Broadsided team as Translations Editor in 2023.

Nayoung Kim, Reviews Editor, is a PhD candidate in English at Brandeis University. Having crossed the Pacific Ocean herself, Nai is partial to colorful, compassionate books from across the sea. When not reading, Nai is either trying to make room in her bookshelf for cool Korean / English books or admiring work by fierce artists. A colorful book blog is Nai’s current dream project. Nai entered the Broadsided world as an editorial intern in 2021 and joined the Broadsided editorial team in 2022. 

Andrew C. Gottlieb, Reviews Editor, published his first full-length collection of poetry, Tales of a Distance, (Trail to Table Books) in May 2022. He’s been writer-in-residence in a number of wilderness locations, including three national parks: Denali, Everglades, and Isle Royale. He studied writing at Iowa State University and the University of Washington, and now lives in Southern California. Much of his work focuses on humans and our integration and activity with landscape and the natural world.  Andy joined the Broadsided editorial team in 2023.

John A. Nieves, “Teach” Editor, has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: North American Review, Copper Nickel, 32 Poems, Harvard Review and Massachusetts Review. He won the Indiana Review Poetry Contest and his first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge’s Prize. He is associate professor of English at Salisbury University and an editor of The Shore Poetry. He received his M.A. from University of South Florida and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. John joined the Broadsided editorial team in 2022.