The Storms Issue 5
Issue 5 of The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art, is honoured to be supported by Fingal Arts / Fingal County Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature / Dublin City Council.
The journal is currently closed for submissions. Issue 5 will launch in November 2025 and will be available to buy from the shop at this website (pre-orders in Oct) and various bookshops around Ireland. Please to not send submissions when we are not open as your work will not be considered. Issue VI will open for submissions in summer 2026.
While you are waiting for Issue 5, you can now flip though The Storms, Issue 2 below, published in January 2023 with cover art by Jane Rainey…
Submission Guidelines (please note submissions have closed for our new issue!)
Submissions should comprise of an email with a brief GREETING to Damien (Hello, I hope you are well, I would like to submit my poem / prose / art…) and a bio in the 3rd person (max 75 words) in the body of the email.
Emails should be titled The Storms Poetry Submission / The Storms Prose Submission / The Storms Art Submission.
Submissions should not have been previously published but you are welcome to submit pieces that have appeared on social media – X, Instagram, Facebook…
Please only submit to ONE CATEGORY per issue.
For POETRY, submit up to THREE (3) poems (max 40 lines per poem), all complied in ONE (1) single document, either WORD DOC or PDF, using TIMES NEW ROMAN / FONT SIZE 11 or similar.
For PROSE, submit up to TWO (2) pieces of prose (max 1500 words per piece), all complied in ONE (1) single document, either WORD DOC or PDF, using TIMES NEW ROMAN / FONT SIZE 11 or similar
For VISUAL ART, submit up to THREE (3) pieces of visual art (photographs, painting, collage) in ONE (1) PDF file. If accepted, I will ask for a higher quality before we go to print.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable but please to let me know immediately if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere and I will be the first to congratulate you.
All submissions are reviewed BLIND! You must have NO IDENTIFYING MARKS on the document. If your name appears on the document with your work it WILL NOT be considered.
Email submissions to thestormssubmissions@yahoo.com and include a 3rd person bio (max 75 words) in the body of the email. This can include your name, however, please remember that the document with your submission should not include your name, either in the title or inside it. Call the document Storms Submission Poetry / Storms Submission Prose / Storms Submission Art.
Please note the address is thestormssubmissions@yahoo.com with two S’s at the centre.
I aim to respond within 4 weeks after the closing submission date.
The journal is currently closed for submissions. Issue 5 will launch in November 2025 and will be available to buy from the shop on this website (pre-orders in Oct) and various bookshops around Ireland. Please to not send submissions when we are not open as your work will not be considered. Issue VI will open for submissions in summer 2026.
Payment
Thanks to the support of Fingal Arts and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, The Storms journal is able to pay its Stormers, as well as giving each a contributor copy of the issue and promotion across all its social media platforms and on its website.
Fee per Poem €50
Fee per Short Story €60
Fee per Visual Art €50
The editor-in-chief of the journal and host and producer of Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, Damien B. Donnelly, is a proud queer man. His work often references his identity, and he believes in sharing stories of the past in order to change the future. He has written about his childhood where he was bullied for being different and has spoken about the challenges of not being able to find himself within the pages of books or across TV screens as a developing adolescent, at a time when we’re looking for identification and connection. He has lived in three different counties, outside of Ireland, and knows the difficulties of finding your place as a foreigner. He has done everything possible to ensure Storm Shelter is a platform where all are visible, both in the pages of the journal and on the podcast. The journal welcomes submissions from artists of all backgrounds, races, genders and identities and does not tolerate any racism or discrimination. There is no submission fee to ensure everyone is treated equally and all submissions are read blind so the selection process is not based on any prior successes.
Follow US
Instagram @thestormsjournal
Mastodon @StormShelter@mastodon.ie
BlueSky @eatthestorms.com
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheStormsJournal
Shop Online
The Storms have previously been available in selected bookshops including Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway, The Winding Stair Bookshop and Books Upstairs, Dublin, Books at One, Louisburgh, Co. Mayo, Dingle Bookshop, Co. Kerry, No Alibis, Belfast, The Secret Bookshelf, Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland.
A shoutout to our funders
The Storms Issue I & II were supported by the Arts Council Ireland & Fingal Arts. Issue III was supported by Fingal Arts and Issue IV and V was supported by Fingal Arts / Fingal County Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature / Dublin City Council.
Things to Note
- We do not tolerate any racism or discrimination.
- We publish poetry, flash fiction, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and all forms of visual art.
- We hold three launches, a live Dublin launch, a live zoom international launch and a podcast launch on Eat the Storms, which is the audio companion to the journal.
- We pay our artists based on the funding we receive. The journal is not profit-maker, but a celebration of creativity, collaboration and community.
- We promote our contributors across all our social media platforms and on the website.
- If you include your name on the document with your submission or inside it, your work will not be accepted or reviewed because all submissions are read blind.
- All work must be submitted in one single document, that means if you submit three poems, they must all be in the same document, not three separate documents. If you submit two short stories, they must all be in the same document. If you submit 3 paintings, all in the same document.
- Standard font is Times New Roman and font size 11, not font size 24.
- Remember the printed journal is not A4, so if you have a complicated layout it may have to change to fit the size, if it’s accepted, The max length for a poem is 40 lines, therefore, if you have long lines that only work in A4, this will not work in the journal and will have to be reviewed and maybe edited down.
- Do not paste your poetry or short stories into the body of the email as the submissions need to be separate as they are read blind. I will not do the extra work for you. I am sorry.
- We do accept writing in languages other than English, however, they must be accompanied by English translations.
- You can submit to this issue even if your work appeared in our last issue.
Flip through Issue 1
About the Editor-in-Chief
Damien B. Donnelly is the award-winning author of the poetry pamphlet, Eat the Storms, the Stickleback micro-collection, Colouring Canvases with Boys, and the conversational pamphlet, In the Jitterfritz of Neon, co-written by Eilín de Paor, all published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press who also published his first full collection, Enough, in August 2022. His second collection, Back from Away, was published by Turas Press in May 2024. He’s the host & producer of Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast and editor-in-chief of The Storms.
His work appears in various journals, online and in print including The Stony Thursday Book, HOWL (New Irish Writing), The Madrigal, Skylight 47, Abridged, The York Literary Review, The Bangor Literary Journal, Impossible Architypes, Fevers of the Mind, Ice Floe Press, Impspired, An Áitiǔil, Broken Spine, Black Bough Poetry, The Runt, Anti Heroin Chic. He has been a featured guest at Cultivating Voices (USA), The Redline Book Festival, The Poetry Lounge Waterford, Lime Square Poets, International Page and Stage, The RTE Poetry Progamme, The Ray D’Arcy RTE Radio 1 show, East Side Arts Festival, Gloucestershire Poetry Festival, The Cheltenham Poetry Festival, Flight of the Dragonfly. He won the Balbriggan heat of the Fingal Poetry Slam at the Fingal Poetry Festival and took 3rd place in the Fingal Poetry Slam finals in 2023.
He was an awardee of the Northern Soul Roadshow in 2024 by the Irish Writers Centre, a bursary awardee of the John Hewitt International Summer School in 2023, a Poetry Town recipient from Poetry Ireland and a recipient of a Bright Ideas bursary, also from Poetry Ireland. He is a three-time Artist Support scheme recipient from the Fingal Arts, two-time Agility Award recipient from the Arts Council, two-time recipient of the Arts Art Grant from Fingal Arts, two-time recipient of the Dublin UNESCO City of Literature grant, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and two time Best of the Net nominee. He has been a poetry workshop facilitator for Fingal Libraries.
He is currently the Creative Projects Coordinator and Coordinator of the National Mentoring Programme at the Irish Writers Centre.
In a previous incarnation, he spent 25 years living in Paris, London and Amsterdam working in the fashion industry as a pattern maker. He bakes rather good cakes.
Storm Shelter 