Lauren K. Alleyne, Editor-in-Chief and Executive Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center
John Hodges & Megan Medeiros, Video Producers | Samantha Wilber, Editorial Assistant
The Fight & The Fiddle is the quarterly journal of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. The publication’s name comes from a line of poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks, to whom the center is dedicated. A resource for poets, critics, and educators, each issue of The Fight & The Fiddle features a Black poet and contains a critical article on/review of the poet’s work, an interview (full text and video excerpt) with the poet, new poems, and a writing prompt inspired by the poet.
We are committed to promoting Black poetry in its diversity of aesthetics and to fostering dialogue and education. We invite you to join us!
“First fight. Then fiddle.” — Gwendolyn Brooks
Poetry: Featured poets are by invitation only and are selected as part of the Furious Flower Reading Series at James Madison University. (Full-length videos of these public readings are available on the Furious Flower YouTube channel.)
While we do not accept poetry submissions for The Fight & The Fiddle, Furious Flower is always on the lookout for emerging and established Black writers to host as a part of the Furious Flower Reading Series at James Madison University. If you would like to be considered, please send a copy of your book(s) and/or press kit to:
Furious Flower Poetry Center
James Madison University
500 Cardinal Drive, MSC 3802
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
Literary Criticism: If you’d like to write a scholarly piece for us, please send a query letter detailing your qualifications and area/poets of interest to Lauren K. Alleyne. Essays are critical or craft-based in nature and focus on work by a specified poet. They are typically 1,500–2,000 words in length, and we pay $125 within 30 days of publication.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.