The 2025 [FREE] Challenge

This challenge is open from June 23, 2025 – 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. Finalists may also be considered for publication. 

We hope you’ll join us—whether you’re polishing your next masterpiece or putting pen to paper for the first time in months. Bring us your boldest, most resonant poetry. We can’t wait to read your work.

Submission Guidelines: Please read carefully!

• [FREE] submissions are open from June 23, 2025 – July 13, 2025.
• For this challenge, please submit only once! We hope to offer this free opportunity to as many people as we can without exceeding the reading capacity of our team. 
• Your submission must be no more than three poems and under ten pages. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. Begin each poem on a new page and include each poem’s individual title.
• Submitted poems can take any form and explore any theme or motif.
• DO NOT INCLUDE your name or identifying information in the document OR submission title box.
• We are only accepting unpublished work. If your poem has been published elsewhere, even on a blog or on social media, it is not eligible.
• We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• Please include a brief cover letter in the cover letter box with your publication history, if any. This text box is where you can include your name and/or bio! If you select the editorial feedback option, this cover letter is also where you can name which poem you’d like feedback on. To safeguard our reading staff, please include content warnings in the cover letter, if applicable, as well.
• Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English—inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is largely written in English. At this time, Palette does not accept translated work unless you are also the author of the original poem.
• Review our FAQ page for frequently asked questions. NOTE: Unlike our other contests, you may only submit once for this challenge.
• 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.
• Palette Poetry does not accept AI-produced work.
• This challenge closes July 13, 2025. Submitters will be notified of their submission status eight to twelve weeks after the contest closing date.

Discount for Submitters

As a thank you for your support for Palette, we’d like to offer a 10% off discount code on a writing class from The Writing Salon. Find a class and use the code included in the confirmation message at checkout.

Editorial Feedback Option

This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on a poem of your choice from the submission, including suggestions for future submissions. The three-letter option costs $149 and will provide you with six pages of detailed and actionable feedback on a poem of your choice from the submission, including suggestions for future submissions, from three separate guest editors. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee and are all incredibly astute poets.