Submit
Have your work published with Palette Poetry!
Featured Poetry
always free. always open.
Submissions for our Featured Poetry category are open year-round to poets at any stage of their careers. Featured poems are published online only and will spotlight a number of poems from new authors each month. We highly encourage emerging authors to submit.
We are thrilled to offer significant payment to our poets: $50 per poem, up to $150. We are proud to be able to pay our artists, but will be highly selective in our choices for publication.
We also warmly invite under-represented and marginalized voices to submit. Our aim is to be an accurate representation of the wonderful diversity of our community. Your voice is valued here, so to help do our part in moving forward the needle on equity in publishing, we've opened a special category for historically marginalized voices to send their work directly to our editorial team and receive a response within two to four weeks. More info here.
Submission Guidelines: Please read carefully!
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Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English—other languages are welcome, as long as the poem is largely in English.
- We only accept unpublished work. If your poem has been published in a journal, on a blog, or on social media, it is not eligible.
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We accept simultaneous submissions, but please send us a message via Submittable if your work is picked up elsewhere—we want to say congrats!
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Send up to 5 poems that total no more than 10 pages.
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We do NOT accept multiple submissions for Featured Poetry. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
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Multiple submissions will be declined unread.
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Please include a brief cover letter in the cover letter box with your publication history, if any. This is where you can include your name and/or bio! If you select the editorial feedback option, this is also where you can name which poem you'd like feedback on.
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Do NOT include your name or contact information in your packet of poems. We do not read submissions anonymously but prefer identifying information to be included in the cover letter, not the packet of poems.
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Expect 12 weeks for a response, but please do not query until 4 months have passed.
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We also offer two paid options for each submission: Fast Response & Editorial Feedback.
- Send us only your best. We will be extremely selective.
The Sappho Prize for Women Poets
We are honored to create this space for women poets to step forward. Thanks to the past efforts of The VIDA Count and other initiatives to highlight gender disparity in literary publications, the poetry landscape has made progress toward equity in recent years. Still, more remains to be done to honor and uplift the work of women poets. Palette is yours as much as ours, and we are committed to making this journal an inclusive, welcoming space where women's voices are amplified and offered tangible support. During the opening week of the contest, we offer a free submission window to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) women poets, which will close after the first fifty entries.
This contest only accepts submissions from women poets. All women are welcome to submit (cis and trans). The winning poet will be awarded $2,500, publication, and a brief interview in Palette Poetry. Second and third place will receive $300 and $200, respectively, as well as publication. The top ten finalists will be selected by Palette editors, and Guest Judge Evie Shockley will then select the winner and two runners-up from among the ten finalists.
Order suddenly we, Shockley’s latest poetry collection, today!
Poet and literary scholar Evie Shockley thinks, creates, and writes with her eye on a Black feminist horizon. Her books of poetry include suddenly we, semiautomatic, and the new black. Her work has twice garnered the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has appeared internationally. Her honors include the 2023 Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and the Stephen Henderson Award, and her joys include participating in poetry communities such as Cave Canem and collaborating with like-minded artists across media. Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University.
Submission Guidelines: Please read carefully!
- For this prize, we are only accepting unpublished work from women (cis and trans) poets.
- Submissions are open internationally, to any woman poet writing in English—inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is largely written in English.
- Do not include your name or identifying information in the document.
- We are only accepting unpublished work. If your poem has been published in a journal, on a blog or social media, or in any other medium, it is not eligible.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please send us a message via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- There is no page requirement, but your submission must be no more than three poems. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. Please begin each poem on a new page and include each poem's individual title.
- We do accept multiple submissions, but each new submission of up to three poems requires its own $20 reading fee.
- Please include a brief cover letter in the cover letter box with your publication history, if any. This is where to include your name and/or bio. If you select the editorial feedback option, please use this space to designate which poem you'd prefer to receive feedback on.
- Review our FAQ page for frequently asked questions.
- NOTE: If after submitting you notice an error in your submission, please message us rather than withdrawing and resubmitting your submission. We can open it to editing once so you can correct the error.
- Contest closes on June 15, 2023.
Author’s Rights
Palette Poetry holds first publication rights for three months after publication, after which rights revert to the author. Authors agree not to publish, nor authorize or permit the publication of, any part of the material for three months following first publication. For reprints, we ask for acknowledgment of publication in Palette Poetry first.
For questions regarding submissions, please see our FAQ page.