An independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture

For more than 110 years, Poetry magazine has been a monthly gathering space for poets and readers. 

The magazine publishes contemporary poetry and prose, primarily in English, and translations from contributors all over the world. 

In addition to its print publication, Poetry’s entire digital archive of over 1,200 issues is available for free, and content from 2013 to present is available in our digital app. 

Poetry has been published in Chicago since its founding in 1912.

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Poetry

Thank you for sharing your work with Poetry. We look forward to the opportunity to engage carefully with your work. Due to the number of submissions we receive each year, we will likely get back to you within eight months. We appreciate your patience.
Gratefully,
Adrian, Holly, Iván, and Lindsay

 
How to Submit
For translations, please submit no more than 7 poems, for a total of 15 pages maximum (including the originals). Please include both the original poem and your translation. If you have any trouble using this online system, please email support@submittable.com.
Once you submit, you’ll receive an email confirming that we received your submission. You can check the status of your submission by logging into your Submittable account. 
IMPORTANT NOTES:

  Please send only one submission at a time per category, and wait until you hear back from us before uploading a new submission. 
  Because we strive to give every submission careful review, our response time can be up to eight months. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
  We consider only previously unpublished translations. Translations that have appeared online for any reason, including social media posts, are considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
  We welcome translations into English of poems originally composed in all languages. 
  Poetry is open to simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if work is accepted elsewhere by adding a message to your submission specifying the work that is no longer available.
  All poets will be compensated for published poems. We pay $10/line with a minimum honorarium of $400 per poem in print and $250/magazine page for prose. For translations, we pay the translator for the translation, and the original author or rights holder for the originals.
  For accepted translations, we will request a one-page translator's note. We will give you guidance for what to include. Payment will be $250 flat rate.
  To make sure you receive our response, set your spam filter to allow emails from submissions@poetrymagazine.org.
  We close for submissions annually from June 15 through September 15. 
  If you have further questions, please visit our detailed FAQ on our website.

Please click the HELP link at the bottom of this page if you have trouble using this site.
If you are unable to use Submittable for any reason, please visit our FAQ page to learn other ways to submit your work.
Thank you for your interest in Poetry magazine!

Translation

How to Submit<div><br></div><div>Please follow the guidelines below to submit 2–6 poems (up to 10 pages total). Please note that we rarely publish individual poems that are more than a few pages in length. If your poem is on the longer side, please let us know in the cover letter if you are OK with us excerpting the poem.</div>

Thank you for sharing your work with Poetry. We look forward to the opportunity to engage carefully with your work. Due to the number of submissions we receive each year, we will likely get back to you within eight months. We appreciate your patience.

 
Gratefully,

  Adrian, Holly, Iván, and Lindsay

 
How to Submit

 Poetry magazine welcomes personal and idiosyncratic prose pertaining to poets and poetry. We appreciate experimental forms, as well as playfulness and a sense of humor. These pieces should demonstrate poetry’s role in the wider culture and its manifestations in the writer’s lived experience. This is not a form for straightforward literary criticism or academic prose. Please see our general submissions page for other prose-related calls (book reviews, roundtables, etc). In this form, we are seeking:

 

  Essays that explore unique or unexpected connections between poetry and the wider culture (pop culture, politics, internet culture, art, etc.). Previous examples include:                                  
    
      “A Politics of Mere Being” by Carl Phillips
      “Exhaust All Poisons” by Brian Kim Stefans 

 
    
      

 
  
  Essays that resurface a poet worthy of closer consideration or that shed new light on a poet/poem via compelling personal narrative. Previous examples include:                                  
    
      "Heart to Heart” by Noah Stetzer
      “Mostly His Apocalpytic Star Glitters Wondrously” by Chase Berggrun
      "Differing Freak Wonder” by Nick Sturm 

 
    
      

 
  
  Immersive dispatches or literary reportage that illuminate poets/poems, canonical or otherwise.                                   
    
      Previous example: "In a Foreign Land” by Mairead Small Staid

 
    
      

 
  
  Creative personal essays on the craft of writing poems or poetic lineages. Previous examples include:                                  
    
      “Among Every Three Fathers, One Will” by Jennifer Tseng
      "Impossible Word: Toward a Poetics of Aphasia” by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes
      “Writing Beyond the Human: Divining the Poetics of Divinity” by Joy Ladin

 
    
      

 
  
  Roundtable discussions or conversations between a group of poets on a specific topic related to poetry or the craft of poetry. Previous examples include:                                  
    
      "Grief in Three Bodies: A Conversation" by Victoria Chang, Prageeta Sharma, and Khaty Xiong
      "Disability and Poetry: An Exchange" by Jennifer Bartlett, John Lee Clark, Jim Ferris, and The Cyborg Jillian Weise
    
      

 

 
  

Our typical essay  length is about 1,500 - 2,500 words. As a maximum, please submit no more than ten pages; if the work is longer than that, please note that in the cover letter and we will ask to see more if we are interested.

      IMPORTANT NOTES:

 

  Please send only one submission at a time per category, and wait until you hear back from us before uploading a new submission. We are eager to provide ample time and space for everyone’s voices to be considered, so if you do send multiple submissions, they will be archived unread and will receive no response.
  We have a small staff that reads over 100,000 poems per year. Because we strive to give every submission careful review, our response time can be up to eight months. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
  We consider only previously unpublished work. Writing that has appeared online for any reason, including social media posts, is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
  Poetry is open to simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if work is accepted elsewhere by adding a message to your submission specifying the work that is no longer available.
  All poets will be compensated for published poems. Our current rate is $400 per published page in print for prose.
  To make sure you receive our response, set your spam filter to allow emails from submissions@poetrymagazine.org.
  We close for submissions annually from June 15 through September 15. 
  If you have further questions, please visit our detailed FAQ on our website.

Please click the HELP link at the bottom of this page if you have trouble using this site. If you are unable to use Submittable for any reason, please visit our FAQ page to learn other ways to submit your work.

 
Thank you for your interest in Poetry magazine!

Prose (essays about poetry - but not poems, prose poems, or fiction)

Thank you for sharing your work with Poetry. We look forward to the opportunity to engage carefully with your work. Due to the number of submissions we receive each year, we will likely get back to you within eight months. We appreciate your patience.
Gratefully,
Adrian, Holly, Iván, and Lindsay

 
How to Submit
Please submit up to 4 poems for consideration, following these guidelines:
1. Upload your video submission, up to four videos. These can be recordings of spoken word pieces, ASL poems, or mixed-media pieces (i.e. poetry read alongside dance).
2. In the second file field, please also include a written copy of your text, as both would be published if accepted for publication. If there are components to your poem which are performed by an artist other than the poem’s author, please include their name and bio as well.
3. Click SUBMIT, and you’ll receive an email confirming that we received your submission. You can check the status of your submission by logging into your Submittable account.
IMPORTANT NOTES:

  Please send only one submission at a time per category, and wait until you hear back from us before uploading a new submission. We are eager to provide ample time and space for everyone’s voices to be considered, so if you do send multiple submissions, they will be archived unread and will receive no response.
  We have a small staff that reads over 100,000 poems per year. Because we strive to give every submission careful review, our response time can be up to eight months. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
  We consider only previously unpublished work. Writing that has appeared online for any reason, including social media posts, is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
  Poetry is open to simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if work is accepted elsewhere by adding a message to your submission specifying the work that is no longer available.
  All poets will be compensated for published poems. We pay a $600 flat rate for video poems.
  To make sure you receive our response, set your spam filter to allow emails from submissions@poetrymagazine.org.
  We close for submissions annually from June 15 through September 15. 
  If you have further questions, please visit our detailed FAQ on our website.

Please click the HELP link at the bottom of this page if you have trouble using this site.
If you are unable to use Submittable for any reason, please visit our FAQ page to learn other ways to submit your work.
Thank you for your interest in Poetry magazine!

Video Poems

Thank you for sharing your work with Poetry. We look forward to the opportunity to engage carefully with your work. Due to the number of submissions we receive each year, we will likely get back to you within eight months. We appreciate your patience.
Gratefully,
Adrian, Holly, Iván, and Lindsay

 
How to Submit
Please submit up to 4 poems (up to 10 pages total) for consideration, following the guidelines below. Please note that we rarely publish visual poems more than 4-5 pages in length. 
1. First save your poems as a single document.
2. Then complete the form with your information and upload your poems
3. Click SUBMIT, and you’ll receive an email confirming that we received your submission. You can check the status of your submission by logging into your Submittable account.
IMPORTANT NOTES:

  Please send only one submission at a time per category, and wait until you hear back from us before uploading a new submission. We are eager to provide ample time and space for everyone’s voices to be considered, so if you do send multiple submissions, they will be archived unread and will receive no response.
  We have a small staff that reads over 100,000 poems per year. Because we strive to give every submission careful review, our response time can be up to eight months. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
  We consider only previously unpublished work. Writing that has appeared online for any reason, including social media posts, is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
  We welcome poems in all languages. For poems that are not primarily in English, please include a translation of the non-English portion(s) of the poem. This is an accessibility consideration for our editorial staff, not an attempt to privilege the English language.
  For those submitting video, please also include a written copy of your text, as both video and text would be published if accepted for publication.
  If your submission involves collaboration with another poet or artist, please include their name and 20-word bio as well.
  Poetry is open to simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if work is accepted elsewhere by adding a message to your submission specifying the work that is no longer available.
  All poets will be compensated for published poems. We pay $10/line with a minimum honorarium of $400 per poem.
  To make sure you receive our response, set your spam filter to allow emails from submissions@poetrymagazine.org.
  We close for submissions annually from June 15 through September 15. 
  If you have further questions, please visit our detailed FAQ on our website.

Please click the HELP link at the bottom of this page if you have trouble using this site.
If you are unable to use Submittable for any reason, please visit our FAQ page to learn other ways to submit your work.
Thank you for your interest in Poetry magazine!

Visual Poetry

We would love to consider your poems for a special issue of Poetry magazine honoring one of our great literary cities: Chicago. This open call is for poets born and/or raised in the city and writers who have lived in Chicago for around seven years at some point in their lives. Those seven years don’t need to be continuous.
We are looking for poems that engage with Chicago’s history, its architecture and art, the geography, the parks and landmarks, other Chicagoans, the restaurant at the end of your street—anything about the 77 neighborhoods, or those outposts serviced by the CTA, that makes Chicago the city of Big Shoulders. We welcome poems in a variety of forms, including lineated poems, prose poems, video poems, and visual poems.
The issue is planned for 2027 in honor of Chicago’s 190th birthday and Poetry’s 115th year of publication in this city. The deadline to submit is May 15, 2026, and notifications will be sent in fall 2026.
We look forward to reading your work!
Adrian, Holly, Iván and Lindsay
How to Submit
Please follow the guidelines below to submit 2–6 poems (up to 10 pages total). Please note that we rarely publish individual poems that are more than a few pages each. If your poem is on the longer side, please let us know in the cover letter if you are OK with us excerpting the poem.
1. Save your poems as a single document. We prefer doc, docx, rtf, txt, or wpf files as they work better for us if work is accepted. If you prefer to upload a pdf to ensure formatting is preserved, please also upload your poems as one of the other file types.
2. Complete the form with your information and upload your poems.
3. Click SUBMIT, and you’ll receive an email confirming that we received your submission. You can check the status of your submission by logging into your Submittable account.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Please send only one submission at a time per category, and wait until you hear back from us before uploading a new submission. We are eager to provide ample time and space for everyone’s voices to be considered, so if you do send multiple submissions, they will be archived unread and will receive no response.
We consider only previously unpublished work. Writing that has appeared online for any reason, including social media posts, is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.
We welcome poems in all languages. For poems that are not primarily in English, please include a translation of the non-English portion(s) of the poem. This is an accessibility consideration for our editorial staff, not an attempt to privilege the English language.
For those submitting video, please also include a written copy of your text, as both video and text would be published if accepted for publication.
If your submission involves collaboration with another poet or artist, please include their name and 20-word bio as well.
Poetry is open to simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if work is accepted elsewhere by adding a message to your submission specifying the work that is no longer available.
All poets will be compensated for published poems. Our current rate is $500 per poem.
To make sure you receive our response, set your spam filter to allow emails from submissions@poetrymagazine.org.
If you have further questions, please visit our detailed FAQ on our website.
Please click the HELP link at the bottom of this page if you have trouble using this site.
If you are unable to use Submittable for any reason, please visit our FAQ page to learn other ways to submit your work.
Thank you for your interest in Poetry magazine!

This open call is for poets born and/or raised in the city and writers who have lived in Chicago for around seven years at some point in their lives. Those seven years don’t need to be continuous.

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