We’re looking for work that’s bizarre, authentic, subtle, outrageous, indefinable, raw, paradoxical. We’ve got our eyes on the horizon. Send us writing that lives just between the land and the sky.

The Adroit Journal (ISSN 2577-9427) is a registered literary and arts nonprofit organization that was founded in 2010 by poet Peter LaBerge. At its foundation, the journal has its eyes focused ahead, seeking to showcase what its global staff of emerging writers sees as the future of poetry, prose, and art.

Featured in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prizes Anthology, Poetry Daily, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets, and by the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Teen Vogue, PBS NewsHour, and NPR, The Adroit Journal has featured the voices of Fatimah Asghar, NoViolet Bulawayo, K-Ming Chang, Franny Choi, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Terrance Hayes, Sarah Kay, Dorianne Laux, Lydia Millet, D. A. Powell, Diane Seuss, Danez Smith, Arthur Sze, Ned Vizzini, Ocean Vuong, and more than one thousand more.


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The Adroit Journal

All secondary and undergraduate students are eligible, including international students and students who have graduated a semester early (in this case, in December 2025). Each poetry submission may include up to five poems (maximum of ten pages single-spaced). Each prose submission may include up to three works of fiction or creative nonfiction (combined word limit of 3,500 words; excerpts are acceptable). 

Each student may send up to five separate submissions for the Adroit Prize for Poetry (each with up to five poems) and up to five separate submissions for the Adroit Prize for Prose (each with up to three works of prose), totaling ten separate submissions. 

Poems and prose pieces included in submissions may be sent to other contests and publications as well (but please disclose simultaneously submitted work in your cover letter), and may have been previously recognized by other organizations and/or featured in campus-wide publications. If work under consideration is accepted elsewhere, submitters should reach out promptly by adding a note to the corresponding submission on Submittable.

All secondary and undergraduate students are eligible, including international students and students who have graduated a semester early

Adroit Prize for Poetry

Adroit Prize for Prose

Prose Reader Positions<div>Add</div><div>Prose/Creative Non-Fiction Reader</div><div>Prose readers get the first crack at all submissions in their specified genre, and are expected to review fiction and nonfiction (and hybrid) submissions regularly and consistently. Reviewing submissions includes voting, providing comments, and participating in occasional discussions about pieces on the bubble. (Est. commitment: 3.5 hrs/week.)</div><div></div><div> </div><div></div><div>Before applying please familiarize yourself with the journal by visiting our About page, and perhaps also an issue or two.</div><div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div>A BRIEF NOTE ON ELIGIBILITY:</div><div>We are fully open to all readers and writers. At this time, for editorial roles, we are not open to editorial staff on the masthead of other internationally-staffed unaffiliated literary journals. Publications that consider solely campus work, or work with specific geographic eligibility requirements, do not apply to this restriction. Non-editorial roles are exempt from this proviso.</div><div></div><div>As we seek to fill open positions sooner rather than later, we consider applications on a rolling basis.</div><div>***Unless otherwise specified, all positions are volunteer and remote in nature &amp; have a start-date of ASAP.***</div>

Prose/Creative Non-Fiction Reader

Fiction

Please submit up to three CNF prose pieces in one document via our Submittable page (adroit.submittable.com). We invite you to submit poetry, art, and/or photography in addition to prose.
Prose submissions may be up to 9,000 words per entry of between 1-3 pieces. Please submit no more than two (2) times per genre per reading period. Additional submissions will be returned unread.
No AI-generated or AI-assisted work will be considered or even tolerated. Every line, word and punctuation mark must come from you or if it is inspired by another poem or resource, you must provide attribution. 
Please include a word count at the top of each submission. 
N.B. PLEASE SUBMIT MULTIPLE PROSE PIECES IN ONE DOCUMENT.
Happy submitting, and thanks in advance!

Nonfiction

General call

We are interested in showcasing on our website previously unpublished reviews of poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction titles. Books should be published in the past six months or imminently forthcoming. We prioritize reviews of titles from independent presses. (We do not consider work that has been self-published.)

The reviews we publish feature lucid writing and address the animating qualities of a book, such as theme, style, voice, and structure. Reviewers should discuss the source of their pleasure or dislike and also include excerpts or passages that illuminate their opinions. Please proofread your work before submitting.

Reviews

Interviews

Poetry

For over a decade, The Adroit Journal has championed emerging voices through our globally recognized Summer Mentorship Program, Adroit Prizes, and scholarship opportunities honoring Gregory Djanikian and Anthony Veasna So. Beginning in 2025, in keeping with our mission to publish emerging writers in conversation with established writers, we created The Adroit Journal Editor’s Prizes in Poetry & Fiction to recognize outstanding work in poetry and fiction from mid-career writers. This prize is dedicated to excellence in craft and daring in vision. The recipients of the Editor’s Prizes will each receive $1,000 and publication alongside our student Adroit Prize winners in our October issue.
Poetry: Submit 1–3 poems in a single document.
Fiction: Submit 1 short story (max 6,000 words recommended).
All entries must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided you disclose your submission as such. Note: If your work is accepted elsewhere, just let us know right away—use the MESSAGES tab in Submittable, not the Notes tab (which we do not receive).
Writers may enter both the Poetry and Fiction categories.
We are encouraging submissions from writers with at least one published book.
We welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds and nationalities.
Submissions Open: July 1, 2026.
Submission Deadline: July 31, 2026.
Result Announcement: Fall 2026.
All entries must be submitted via our Submittable portal.
Please note: We do not accept submissions via post or email, except in the case of accessibility accommodations. Writers with disabilities that do not allow for Submittable entry may email us at editors[at]theadroitjournal[dot]org.
We will only consider the first 500 POETRY submissions and the first 300 FICTION submissions. Once these submission caps are achieved, the submission category will automatically close. We encourage you to submit early—once our submission quotas are met, we will be unable to accept additional entries.
The Editor’s Prize submission fee is $15/submission.
All proceeds will support The Adroit Journal‘s editorial operations, including our ongoing commitment to offering contributor stipends to each issue contributor, as well as awarding the prizes.
All entries will be read and evaluated by members of The Adroit Journal‘s editorial staff. To learn more about our staff, please click here.
Please note that you may submit revisions of unpublished work previously submitted to the journal’s general submissions windows, as well as to previous cycles of the Adroit Prizes and Djanikian & Veasna So Scholars.

The Adroit Journal

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