Deadlines: September & October 2026
Every middle of the month: new deadlines, new contests, and new opportunities for your work to find its audience. Here is a roundup of ten submission opportunities with deadlines in September or October, including Quarterly West, Saw Palm, Poetry Northwest, and more.
DEADLINE: 9/15
The Journal: Poetry
The award-winning literary journal of The Ohio State University, The Journal contributes significantly toward the literary landscape of Ohio and the nation. The Journal seeks to identify and encourage emerging writers while also attracting the work of established writers to create a diverse and compelling magazine.
“We are looking for fresh, surprising work with technique and technical control. We want poems with heart (emotional clarity and complication) and brains (theoretical engagement, well-developed logic and metaphor, mastery of syntax and diction). We appreciate the strange, the dynamic and enticing—poems that challenge, move, and conjure. Put simply, poems that we would be happy to read over and over again, poems in which we could appreciate new meanings, details, and connections each time.”
- Please limit poetry submissions to 3 poems grouped in a single .doc or .pdf document—with 12 pt, Garamond font.
Reading Fee: free
DEADLINE: 9/16
Poetry Northwest: Submit Poems to Presenting
Poetry Northwest is the region’s oldest literary magazine. After more than 60 years, they remain committed to publishing the best in contemporary poetry, especially work willing to take risks and push readers to the emotional and intellectual edge of what poetry makes possible.
Presenting is a print feature in which Senior Editor Xavier Cavazos introduces readers to a poet whose work has never before been featured in a nationally distributed print journal. All writers whose poetry has not been featured or is not forthcoming in a nationally distributed print journal may submit. All work submitted in this category will be considered for general publication even if not selected for the Presenting feature.
- Writers can submit up to four poems at a time.
Reading Fee: free
DEADLINE: 9/23
Quarterly West: Poetry General Submissions
Quarterly West is the online literary journal run and staffed by PhD creative writing students at the University of Utah. QW is looking for writing that is: Exciting. Challenging. Risky. Unpredictable. And Different.
Send us your work. Seep in. Stomp in. Strike us. Set the familiar voice on fire.
- Please submit 3 to 5 poems as one file (.doc, .docx, or .pdf), and a brief cover note in the cover note field. Please remove your name from anywhere on the file.
Reading fee: $3
DEADLINE: 9/28
Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine: Poetry
Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine is a literary journal dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of narrative medicine, an interdisciplinary field that enhances healthcare through the effective communication, empathy and understanding between clinicians, caregivers and patients.
Intima publishes original contributions of literary and artistic merit that relate to the theory and practice of narrative medicine, and welcomes poetry that deals with any aspect along the illness/healing/caregiving continuum.
- You can submit up to three (3) poems per submission period.
- Poems should be no longer than one page in length.
Reading Fee: $7.50
DEADLINE: 10/1
Red Rock Review Literary Journal: Poetry
Red Rock Review is a biannual print and online publication that features poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers. Founded in 1995, Red Rock Review is housed and supported by The College of Southern Nevada.
“We seek poems with authentic views that push boundaries and have something unique to say about the human experience; we are particularly passionate about poems that use language to explore and evoke a deep sense of emotion, culture, place, or identity. We are open to reading both traditional form and bold experimental poetry, as well as original translations of previously published work.”
- Please send no more than five poems/ ten pages of poetry per submission.
Reading Fee: $2
DEADLINE: 10/1
Saw Palm: 2026 Poetry
Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art is an annual print journal centering Florida lives, landscapes, and experiences.
They are seeking poetry that is lucid and fresh and illuminates the fascinating, strange, and strangely fascinating Floridian point of view. Saw Palm welcomes experimental and hybrid creative work emblematic of Florida lives, landscapes, and tropes.
- Please submit no more than five poems per submission period at a maximum of 10 pages.
- Please send all poems in one document.
Reading fee: free
DEADLINE: 10/2
seedfall: LORE
seedfall is Tulipwood’s annual journal of poetry and prose by women and nonbinary and trans writers. seedfall invites you to submit work on this year’s theme: Lore.
“Lore is story—both true and imagined. Lore carries connotations of family myth-making, of cultural wisdom, of shared ethics. It is knowledge gained through study. “Lore” shares a root with “learn.” Mythology travels alongside lore, with elements of whimsy, memoir, and otherworldliness.
In the tradition of “Turn of the Screw,” tell us a story within a story. Bring us into the hand-told tale passed down from generations, the anecdote, the vignette sanded smooth by Time, where the act of remembering and retelling, with no strict allegiance to fact or to fiction, is our resistance.”
- Please send only previously unpublished work: 3-5 poems (totaling no more than 10 pages).
Reading Fee: $2
DEADLINE: 10/15
Little Patuxent Review: Poetry Submissions
Little Patuxent Review (LPR) is a journal of literature and the arts, publishing poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction and artwork. LPR welcomes most U.S.-based contributors and prides itself on supporting both up-and-coming and well-established artists and writers.
- Submit up to 3 poems of a maximum of 100 lines.
Reading Fee: free
DEADLINE: 10/16
Obsidian Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora: Poetry
Obsidian cultivates, through publication and critical inquiry, Black imagination, innovation, and excellence—supporting Black, African, and African Diaspora creatives globally.
Obsidian celebrates over fifty years of continuous publication and is dedicated to publishing contemporary poetry, fiction, drama/performance, visual and media art biannually in print and year-round online.
- Submit up to five (5) poems totaling no more than eight (8) pages.
Reading fee: free
DEADLINE: 10/31
Indiana Review: General Poetry
Indiana Review is a non-profit literary magazine published biannually by the English Department at Indiana University Bloomington.
“We’ve been offering “carefully strange” literature since 1976.”
- Submit 3–6 poems, up to 12 pages total.
- Please include all poems in a single file.
Reading fee: $3