Submission Guidelines

We want the best that you have to offer. We enjoy reading poetry of all kinds.  Look at the last couple of issues to see what has impressed us in the past and to get a feel for our editorial tastes and biases.  We welcome poetry submissions from poets with or without name recognition or publication credits.  We welcome prose poetry submissions specifically, and other kinds of work that utilizes or springboards from a tradition or conventions but is not afraid to step out and take risks if warranted.  We also appreciate poets who workshop or blog online who are writing seriously, constantly,  uniquely and interestingly who are not currently finding much of an audience for their work, but deserve one.  We enjoy and often try to publish more than one poem from an author whose work we accept in order to show a poet’s range.  If curious check out our Duotrope editorial interview linked on the Welcome page.  Be sure to follow these guidelines or your poems may not get read by us.

  • At the bottom of the page you will find a link to our Submittable submissions manager. You will need to register or login. Other journals use this fine software so you may find that you are already registered, but in any case this will make tracking your submissions easier for us and for you.
  • Important: If sending poems, send no more than 3 poems within a single document (we prefer .doc–do not send pdf). The title line should read (your name, # of poems) as in Jane Doe, 2 poems. If sending art we prefer .jpg files for images (up to 3 for starters) or you may send a link to your website in your cover letter if you wish us to sample more of your work.
  • Send your best unpublished poems. We accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know of publication elsewhere. We will send you confirmation of receipt and let you know concerning acceptance or refusal within 1-3 months. Usually we are quite prompt.
  • Please include a cover letter with your contact information and a short bio that we can use if we publish your work.
  • Wait until you hear about one submission before sending another.
  • We will do our utmost to reply to your work regarding acceptance or rejection for publication within three months or sooner of being received. We will also strive to send you a confirmation of receipt if your work has been forwarded to the editorial panel in good order. By submitting to us you are acknowledging that this is your own work that  has not been published elsewhere. We reserve the right to comment on your work within our journal. If you don’t hear from us, you may inquire with “Submission Inquiry” in the title line.
  • We will publish your poems within a year of acceptance. We regret we cannot offer payment.  We publish two issues a year, approximately the middle of the month in January and July.  We are often planning and looking one or two issues ahead as we are reviewing and soliciting submissions.

Submit to Triggerfish Critical Review (via Submittable)

 

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