The 2025 Pen Pal Poetry Challenge

This contest is open from September 25, 2025 – 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. The Palette editors will select one winning poem to receive $800 and publication. The prize money will be split evenly among the winning poets. Finalists may also be considered for publication. 

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.

Some examples of collaborative poetry include:

• “Letters from Two Gardens” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Ross Gay
  • "Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil Discuss Gardens and Collaborative Poetry" (Orion Magazine)
• "A Poem Cycle" by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton
  • "Poetry and Collaboration: Denise Duhamel & Maureen Seaton" (Academy of American Poets)
• “Post-Op Letters in the Field Between Us” by Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison
  • "Embodied Translations: A Conversation with Susannah Nevison and Molly McCully Brown" (The Adroit Journal) 
• “Born to Fly – Tapestry” by Avril Meallem and Shernaz Wadia

Submission Guidelines: Please read carefully!

• For this challenge, please collaborate with at least one other person to write poems. Submitted poems can take any form and explore any theme or motif, as long as they all are written by more than one author. 
• Only collaborations between living writers are allowed. Submitted work must be approved by all contributing authors when the acceptance email is sent.
• Please submit your work under one Submittable account and list all collaborators’ names and email addresses in the submission. You may also include separate bios for each author.
• The $800 prize will be split evenly among all contributing authors of the winning poem. 
• Your submission must be no more than three poems and under ten pages. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. Please begin each poem on a new page and include each poem’s individual title.
• Each submission must be written by the same group of collaborators. If you would like to submit work with a different writer, you will need to submit another separate submission. 
• We do accept multiple submissions (of one to three poems apiece), but each submission will include the $20 reading fee.
• We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• 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.
• 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.
• DO NOT INCLUDE your names or any identifying information in the document OR submission title box.
• 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, and the bios of your collaborators! 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. (See our Cover Letter Basics post for more information.)
• 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.
• Palette Poetry does not accept AI-produced work. Such work will be automatically declined.
• Contest closes October 5, 2025. Submitters will be notified of their submission status within twelve weeks of the contest closing date.