Calendar
Our contests and offerings for 2026
CURRENTLY OPEN
The Ekphrastic Poetry Prize
July 1 - August 30, 2026
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.
UPCOMING
Spilled Ink Challenge
September 14 - September 27, 2026
Palette is excited to announce the 2026 Spilled Ink Challenge, a call for poets to share their raw, confessional, and accidental poems. We welcome emerging and established poets to submit poems that gnaw at the raw and vulnerable parts of the human experience, those secrets that weren’t meant to be spilled.Take inspiration from Anne Sexton’s epitomizing confessions in Love Poems, Larry Levis’s Winter Stars collection on family estrangement and grief, the articulate rage of Frank Bidart’s Watching the Spring Festival, or Louise Glück’s Winter Recipes from the Collective for stream of consciousness pondering on life, love, and death. The Palette editors will select one winning poem to receive $500 and publication.
The Ouroboros Prize
October 5 - December 6, 2026
More information to come soon.
PREVIOUSLY OPENED
The Queer Poetry Challenge
June 15 - June 30, 2026
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.
The Nature Poetry Prize
April 14 - June 14, 2026
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.
The Rising Poet Prize
February 9 - April 12, 2026
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.
Chapbook Manuscript Workshop
January 26 - March 12, 2026
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.
The Rejected Poetry Prize
December 8, 2025 - February 8, 2026
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.
Winter Keynote Lecture
November 1 - December 3, 2025
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.
The Love & Eros Prize
October 6 - December 7, 2025
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.
The Pen Pal Poetry Challenge
September 25 - October 5, 2025
This fall, Palette Poetry invites you to collaborate, converse, share space and vision, and create with fellow poets. For ten days, from September 25 to October 5, we will be open for submissions of collaborative poetry written by two or more people. We hope you rise to the challenge and explore what it’s like to write with others. Through the exchange of words, letters, thoughts, and secrets, consider what can be conjured when poets combine forces.
The Palette Poetry Prize
July 21 - September 21, 2025
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.
Summer Async Studio
July 7 - August 3, 2025
This summer, we invite you to join our Async Studio, a space for poets to receive editorial feedback and mini master class lessons from some of our favorite poets and editors. Explore our growing library of twelve mini lectures on various poetry craft topics from strategic line breaks to revision strategies and more. Our intention is to give you accessible and rewatchable advice to aid you in developing your writing and to demystifying the craft of poetry and the field of publication.
The [FREE] Challenge
June 23 - July 13, 2025
This summer, we invite you to submit your poetry to our 2025 [FREE] Challenge! With everything happening in the world right now, and during a cost-of-living crisis, we at Palette want to offer an accessible space for all poets—a moment to breathe and write without the concern of a financial barrier. From June 23 to July 13, we will be open for submissions without any entry fee. The Palette editors will select one winning poem to receive $500 and publication. Bring us your boldest, most resonant poetry.
The Nature Poetry Prize
April 14 - June 15, 2025
This summer, we invite you to get outside and write some poems! Aimee Nezhukumatathil will judge our inaugural Nature Poetry Prize. Please send us your meditations on the sound of wind, your obsessions with the shape of trees, and your words woven like blades of grass. We are looking forward to reading any and all poems that are interested in the natural world.