International journal dedicated to the prose poem form, exploring its borders and possibilities.

The Prose Poem is an online literary magazine dedicated exclusively to prose poetry. It welcomes a wide range of prose poem styles, including micropoetry, hybrid forms, and “hermit crab” poems that adopt the structure of other types of writing (such as lists, recipes, or forms)

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The Prose Poem

Submission Call
 We are currently reading prose poems of up to 500 words on any subject. We welcome micropoetry and other very short forms, as well as hybrid forms and ‘hermit crab’ poems that adopt the structure of other forms of writing (such as lists, forms, recipes, etc.).
 We only publish prose poetry. We appreciate that there is a lot of crossover between the prose poem and forms such as narrative poetry, free verse, microfiction, flash fiction, etc. We are happy to read work that is on (or perhaps a little past) the fuzzy boundaries of these various forms, but we are unlikely to publish anything that looks like formal poetry or poetry consciously formatted in lines and stanzas without some nod to sentences, paragraphs, and/or other indicators of a prose-like sensibility. 

 Submission Guidelines
 You may submit multiple poems.
 We prefer .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, and .txt documents. If your piece relies heavily on formatting, please send us a pdf. (We may request another format if the poem is accepted for publication.)
 Please do not include your name or personal details in the title or text of your document.
 We publish on our website which is designed to be readable on many sizes of screens and which may not support unusual formatting decisions. Please keep this in mind when submitting. In some cases, we may have to publish poems as an image, or work with an author to find alternative formatting or digital publishing options. 

 We welcome simultaneous submissions but we only accept unpublished work. Please withdraw your piece by emailing us asap if it is picked up elsewhere. No refunds can be given.
 We define previously published work as work that has appeared in other journals or on personal websites or social media that are freely available. You are welcome to submit work that has appeared in private, password-protected writers’ forums and crtitique groups. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.
Submissions are free. 
Donations are much appreciated and will go toward paying our expenses, including Duosuma fees, web hosting, and small honorariums for guest readers. That said, submissions will be at no advantage or disadvantage based on donations. 

Please include a print-ready third-persion bio and your name as you wish it to appear in print with your submission.

 
 Terms of publication
 We request first publication rights and a period of exclusivity for six months after publication. Copyright remains with the author at all times.
 We are not in a position to be able to offer payment outside of our competition awards. (We expect to lose money on this project.)

We nominate for awards such as the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. In some cases, we are required to provide nominee's email address with a nomination so that they can be contacted should their work be chosen for an award. If you are not happy with us passing on your name and email address as part of an award nomination, please let us know when you submit your work. (This will in no way affect the decision to publish your work.)
Authors will be given a chance to review our publication terms before accepting publication. 

 

Category: Poetry
File types: .doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf, .rtf, .txt
Number of Pieces: No limits on number of pieces per submission.
Single File: Not required; may include a separate file/link for each piece.
Anonymous submissions are required (no identifying information in files).
Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Reprints are not allowed.
Multiple entries are allowed.
AI-assisted works are not allowed.

 Return to overview / See other calls

Prose Poetry

This call is for artist/writers submitting artwork paired with a prose poem, both created by the same person. 
Submission Call
After our first successful ekphrastic prose poetry call, we plan to regularly devote March to the publication of ekphrastic work. We are currently reading for our series to be published in March 2027.
Both the poem and artwork must be created by the same person and be previously unpublished. 
Please send a high-resolution scan, photograph or digital image with your submission. 

The artwork can be any medium, but it must be created by a human. Please do not send us AI-generated art. 
We do not publish photographs involving people who have not explicitly given their permission to be photographed and have their image appear in this context.
The prose poem can be up to 500 words and must respond with the image in some way. It does not have to directly address the image, but it should pair with the image in some way.
We welcome micropoetry and other very short forms, as well as hybrid forms and ‘hermit crab’ poems that adopt the structure of other forms of writing (such as lists, forms, recipes, etc.).
We only publish prose poetry. We appreciate that there is a lot of crossover between the prose poem and forms such as narrative poetry, free verse, microfiction, flash fiction, etc. Anything that looks like formal poetry or poetry consciously formatted in lines and stanzas is less likely to be a good fit for us.

This submission call will be open until at least 31 October, and will remain open after that until we have filled the slots reserved for our ekphrastic issues.

Submission Guidelines
You may submit multiple poems and images.
We prefer .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, and .txt documents. If your piece relies heavily on formatting, please send us a pdf. (We may request another format if the poem is accepted for publication.)
We prefer that you send your image(s) in separate files. If you include them in the same document as your poem, please note that we will need to you provide an image file if the poem is accepted.
Please do not include your name or personal details in the title or text of your document.
We publish on our website which is designed to be readable on many sizes of screens and which may not support unusual formatting decisions. Please keep this in mind when submitting. In some cases, we may have to publish poems as an image, or work with an author to find alternative formatting or digital publishing options.

We welcome simultaneous submissions but we only accept unpublished work. Please withdraw your piece by emailing us asap if it is picked up elsewhere. No refunds can be given.
We define previously published work as work that has appeared in other journals or on personal websites or social media that are freely available. You are welcome to submit work that has appeared in private, password-protected writers’ forums and crtitique groups. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.
Submissions are free.
Donations are much appreciated and will go toward paying our expenses, including Duosuma fees, web hosting, and the occasional small honorariums for guest readers. Submissions will be at no advantage or disadvantage based on donations.

Please include a print-ready third-persion bio and your name as you wish it to appear in print with your submission. You are welcome to include an artist's statement as well, if you like.

Terms of publication
We request first publication rights and a period of exclusivity for six months after publication. Copyright remains with the author at all times.
We are not in a position to be able to offer payment outside of our competition awards. (We expect to lose money on this project.)

We nominate for awards such as the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. In some cases, we are required to provide nominee's email address with a nomination so that they can be contacted should their work be chosen for an award. If you are not happy with us passing on your name and email address as part of an award nomination, please let us know when you submit your work. (This will in no way affect the decision to publish your work.)
Authors will be given a chance to review our publication terms before accepting publication.

Categories: Poetry/Art
File types: .doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf, .rtf, .txt, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff
Number of Pieces: No limits on number of pieces per submission.
Single File: Not required; may include a separate file/link for each piece.
Anonymous submissions are required (no identifying information in files).
Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Reprints are not allowed.
Multiple entries are allowed.
AI-assisted works are not allowed.

 Return to overview / See other calls

Ekphrastic Prose Poetry (for artist/writers)

We welcome submissions of prose poems of up to 500 words on any subject for our annual prose poetry competition.
 Prizes:
 First place: £100 plus publication
 Second place: £50 plus publication
 Third place: £25 plus publication
 Honourable mention: £10 plus publication
 
 Submission fees are:
 1 poem £3 

 2 poems £4.50 

 3 poems £6 

 Free submission are available for underrepresented writers and writers who cannot afford the submission fee. You do not need to give a reason for taking this option and your poem will not be at any disadvantage if you use the free entry. If you would like to make use of this, please email us at hello@theprosepoem.com for details.

 
 Submission Call
 We are currently reading prose poems of up to 500 words on any subject. We welcome micro (prose) poetry and other very short forms, as well as hybrid forms and ‘hermit crab’ poems that adopt the structure of other forms of writing (such as lists, forms, recipes, etc.).
 We only publish prose poetry. We're happy to read work that is on (or perhaps a little past) the fuzzy boundaries of prose poetry and narrative poetry, free verse, microfiction, flash fiction, etc., but poems intentionally formatted with line breaks and stanzas are unlikely to be a good fit for us. 
 We publish all poems that receive a cash prize (first, second and third place, plus honourable mentions). We offer publication to all shortlisted pieces and some longlisted pieces as well, but when you submit, you may opt not to publish with us if you do not win a cash prize. (Opting out will not affect the competition judging in any way.) We will confirm a poem's availability before publishing. 
 
 Timeline
 The competition is open for submissions from 15 July – 15 October 
 The longlist will be announced by 30 October 
 The shortlist will be announced by 15 November 
Winners will be announced by 30 November 
 
 Unlike many competitions, we will be reading throughout the submission period, so you may receive a notification that you are on the longlist or that your poem is no longer being considered before the submission window is over. Prize winners and honourable mentions will not be determined until after the competition closing date.
 Submission Guidelines
 You may submit as many times as you like, with a maximum of three poems per submission. Please choose the correct submission call. This call is for ONE poem. 
 We prefer .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, and .txt documents. If your piece relies heavily on formatting, please send us a pdf. (We will request another format if the poem is accepted for publication.)
 Please do not include your name or personal details in the title or text of your document.
 We publish on our website which is designed to be readable on many sizes of screens and which may not support unusual formatting decisions. Please keep this in mind when submitting. In some cases, we may have to publish poems as an image, or work with an author to find alternative formatting options.
 We welcome simultaneous submissions but we only accept unpublished work. Please withdraw your piece by emailing us asap if it is picked up elsewhere. No refunds can be given.
 We define previously published work as work that has appeared in other journals or on personal websites that are freely available. You are welcome to submit work that has appeared in private, password-protected writers’ forums and critique groups. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.
 
 Terms of publication
 All winning and highly commended pieces will be published on our website and will remain online for the lifetime of this project.
 We request first online publication rights and a period of exclusivity for six months after publication (though we are happy to make exceptions for anthologies, collections, awards, translations and other projects; feel to contact us). Copyright remains with the author at all times.
 Payment for prize-winning poetry can be made via PayPal or UK bank transfer.
 

Category: Poetry
File types: .doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf, .rtf, .txt
Number of Pieces: 1 piece
Anonymous submissions are required (no identifying information in files).
Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Reprints are not allowed.
Multiple entries are allowed.
AI-assisted works are not allowed.

 Return to overview / See other calls

The Prose Poem

Highlights

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Featured Call

Prose Poetry (1 poem)

Appears in collections