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. This is the medium through which we will receive and review submissions–please do not email them to us.
- Important: If sending poems, send 3-5 poems within a single document (do not send pdf). 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- Send your best unpublished poems.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 for contributor notes if we publish your work.
- By submitting to us you are acknowledging that this is your own work that has not been published elsewhere and has not been generated by AI. Please note that we reserve the right to comment on your work and use contributor peer review in our journal.
- We will publish your poems within a year of acceptance. We regret we cannot offer payment, and neither do we charge to read submissions. 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)