Submissions are OPEN
Please review our submission guidelines below in advance of sending us your poetry.
Current Open Calls:
- General Submissions for poetry on current events
- An open call on the 2024 Presidential Election – closes Friday, November 15 at 11:59pm PST
Submission Guidelines
Poets Reading the News publishes poetry about current events. Please read our full guidelines in advance of submitting your work.
• We accept only original and previously unpublished works, up to three (3) poems per submission.
• You may have one submission per open call under review at a time.
• Simultaneous submissions are encouraged. If your writing is accepted elsewhere, please notify us as soon as possible.
• Entitle your submission “Breaking” to alert the editors if your submission is time sensitive.
• Whenever possible, include news sources to support your submission. Provide sources for any data or quotes.
• If your submission is modeled after another poem, for example an updated edition of or featuring passages borrowed from another writer’s work, please acknowledge it in the header of the submission document. Published poems that fail to include mention of mother poems risk being instantly removed from our platform.
• Poets Reading the News encourages writers of all backgrounds to submit their writing, including women writers, writers of color, emergent and previously unpublished writers, LGBTQ+ writers, low/no-income writers, and writers from regions and countries near and far.
• Poets Reading the News does not publish works that promote prejudice or hatred. This prohibition includes racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.
• If your work is accepted, Poets Reading the News requests First North American Serial & archival rights, and the right to include work in future anthologies. All rights revert back to author after publication. Your poetry may also appear with author’s citation on our social media platforms, newsletter, and podcast.
• AI plagiarism is an increasingly serious concern as it compromises the integrity of originally written language, which continues to be our inexhaustible focus as a literary journal by and for people. Our editors appreciate that innovative creative work can be made possible when writers collaborate deliberately with technology. We do not publish undisclosed AI-generated content and will decline submissions or remove published works that are discovered to feature undisclosed AI-generated content. To avoid this terrible fate, please include a note to the editors in your submission to clarify where AI-generated content is located in your submission and what software you used to generate it.
• We accept submissions through Submittable. We are not able to review submissions directly emailed to our editors.
• Our journal receives a large volume of submissions. As a reminder, we are a volunteer-run organization. Please allow up to 12 weeks for us to respond to your submission. Thank you in advance for your patience.
