The Quintessential Meter for Storytelling
Why is iambic pentameter the quintessential meter for storytelling?
The resurgence of formal narrative poetry in the modern age
Featured Release
Such treasure never left Jerusalem
As what the Queen of Sheba carried home.
In this verse narrative of one of the Bible’s most mysterious personas, the Queen of Sheba journeys to confront King Solomon with some of life’s hardest questions. What of the corrupted world? Death? Evil? Eternity? King Solomon delivers timely answers to these and more, and the Queen of Sheba discovers what she never expected.
A Riddle for the King features a variety of forms, meters, and rhyme schemes giving each character a unique voice. Included among others are blank verse, villanelle, quatrains, and terza rima. King Solomon answers the Queen’s many questions in his own signature form.
Paperback:
ISBN: 978-1-7379020-0-3
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5
82 pages
Paperback and Ebook available at
“Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication. Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times.”
—Rives Collins, The Power of Story
Poetry that Tells a Story
We all receive light in many ways. Whether in books or movies, the common thread is the story.
Deriving from oral tradition with its dominance from the most ancient times through the Renaissance, narrative poetry is our greatest literary tradition.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh, to Beowulf, to Dante’s Inferno, to Milton’s Paradise Lost and many others, narrative poetry has given the world an ever-guiding legacy.
Narrative Light Press is devoted to sharing light through formal narrative poetry, book length in scope.
The Mission of the Press
Our Publishing Philosophy
With the goal of bringing formal narrative poetry back into significance (which includes but is not defined by gaining a popular audience), we can not follow the same practice and mindset of the contemporary poetry publishing model.
Current poetry publishing trends are almost universally geared toward free verse lyric poetry. While an essential form of poetry, the continued honing of this aesthetic has failed to reach the audience that it perhaps deserves. The reasons are many. Change is necessary.
Our publishing philosophy is geared toward reaching the general reader who first and foremost wants one thing: a great story.
Both the merit of a story and its execution in verse determine whether a work is ready for publication. Like a good novel or movie, narrative poetry must entertain and connect with the reader on potentially a variety of levels.
Something entirely unique and special happens when verse and story meet.
“You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.”
—Margaret Atwood
Story in Verse
The Blog of Narrative Light Press
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“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.”
—J.K. Rowling
Submissions
Whether you are writing the next hero’s journey set in a faraway world, or contemporary love story, we are interested. Your potential for publication does not depend on what you have or have not published previously.
Craft of verse and story are what matter.
We accept unsolicited manuscripts and are open to first-time authors.
Follow the link for all the details.