Calendar

As summer reaches full swing, we invite you to use those scenic views by participating in our upcoming Ekphrastic Poetry Prize! Ekphrastic poems offer a writer's unique perspective and perception of a specific work of art, breathing new life into it. Please join us in contemplating established images like "Café Terrace at Night" by Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol's "Untitled from Flowers," and Frida Kahlo portraits, or your favorite film, the sculptures in your local park, or even reinventing your own images! Whether you choose to interpret a painting or create your own narrative from a found photograph, we encourage you to send your ekphrastic poems our way! This prize will be judged by Divya Victor.

In celebration of pride month, we are excited to announce the return of our Queer Poetry Challenge! From June 15 to June 30, we welcome poets of all backgrounds to share any poems that meditate on the idea of “queerness.” These poems could explore sexuality, gender, or identity. Submitters are not required to identify as LGBTQ+—we hope to celebrate writers who are learning about themselves through poetry, in addition to those who identify as queer poets. We look forward to reading your experiments in poetic form, meditations on relationships, and inquiries into yourself.

As summer crawls forth, we invite you to step outside and immerse yourself (and your writing) in nature! For our second year of the Nature Poetry Prize, please join us in celebrating the natural world through poems contemplating our relationship to flora and fauna, on how words can bloom from soil, and about the melody you hear whispered in the winds. Whether your connection to nature is positive, antagonistic, or dependent—we look forward to reading it all! This prize will be judged by Kimiko Hahn.

Back by popular demand, the Rising Poet Prize is returning this spring! From February 9 to April 12, 2026, Palette Poetry invites all poets who have not yet published a full-length collection to send us your best poems. We are looking to celebrate new and exciting work, and we hope to shine a light on up-and-coming poets. This prize will be judged by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo.

Working on your debut chapbook? Maybe you’re looking for writing exercises to help with developmental edits, or advice on where to query your completed manuscript. If so, we invite you to our Chapbook Manuscript Workshop, moderated by Joshua Roark, Palette's founding editor, and joined by two previous chapbook prize winners, Ava Chen and Jessie Keary, along with poetry editor Xander Gershberg. In our two-hour virtual discussion and workshop on Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7 PM EDT / 4 PM PDT, our panelists of writers and editors will share their experiences and insight to help you on your chapbook journey. You will have the opportunity to hear their advice on writing/editing/publishing chapbooks, learn tips and tricks to troubleshoot any issues with your current manuscript, and ask any questions during the Q&A.

To wrap up 2025 and welcome in 2026, we at Palette Poetry will be running our inaugural Rejection Poetry Prize! Rejection is a universal experience that all writers must face in their career. It is valid to feel disappointed, or even gut-wrenched, when the work we pour our hearts into is turned away (once again). But how we proceed after being rejected—our actions and attitude—is what defines us as writers. From December 8, 2025 to February 8, 2026, we invite you to revisit your rejected poems, breathe new life into them, and give your writing a second chance of finding a home at our magazine. This prize will be judged by Mai Der Vang.

To celebrate our fourth run of the Love & Eros Prize, we've invited our guest judge, 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin, to share her expertise on writing about love, weaving mythos into poems, and sharing cultural experiences through literature. Join our virtual lecture and workshop on Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 7 PM EST / 4 PM PST as we read, write, and discuss these ideas and answer your questions about everything from craft to publication.

Palette Poetry’s Love & Eros Prize is returning for its fourth run this fall! From October 6 to December 7, we welcome you to share your love poems that explore the many and varied iterations of love. From the romantic and platonic, to the sweet and queer—the reverential devotion and gut-wrenching longing. What emotions branch from love? How are we all touched by love, and what shape does it manifest as in your life? This prize will be judged by Sun Yung Shin.

As seasons shift and as our team grows and transitions, we at Palette invite you to submit your poetry to our 2025 Palette Poetry Prize! From July 21 to September 21, we are seeking poems that celebrate the community we have by meditating on the role of the poet in this pivotal moment in time. Whether you are an established poet or have just picked up the pen yesterday, we welcome you to join us in this reflection exercise. Send us your most innovative and exciting poetry. Send us poems that are grounding. Send us your truth.