Many publishers list submittable.com which lets you submit poetry through their website. Their website lets you track your submissions to publishers not listed on submittable.
Another great resource is duotrope.com which for a $5 monthly fee lets you research publications, keep track of submissions, and they have their own submission service called duosoma. Their submissions calendar is a useful feature in finding new anthology calls.
You can also find even more listings for anthologies and journals on:
- thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Search/ByFilter?poetry=true
- www.bylines.org
- www.pw.org/classifieds
- www.newpages.com/classifieds/calls-for-submissions
- www.clmp.org/programs-opportunities/calls-for-submissions/
- http://www.chillsubs.com
- https://moksha.io/open-publications/
- https://duotrope.com/calendar/
- https://manager.submittable.com/opportunities/discover?page=1&search=&tags=anthology
- If that isn’t enough try searching “call for submissions” “poetry” or “call for submissions” or “anthology” on Google, or use Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn’s internal search engines with similar phrases. Using Facebook’s search tool limit the search to recent posts within the current year and use phrases like “send poems anthology” or “email poems anthology” or “submissions poetry anthology.” There are several groups within social media sites that list calls as well.
Poets Trish Hopkinson, Erica Verrillo, Cathy Bryant, and Erika Dreifus regularly list submission calls on their websites. Authors Publish, Write.Info, and Rick Lupert’s Poetry Super Highway are two other great resources. Deborah Fruchey’s Strictly East often re-publishes the calls we share on our mailing list.
Try to research the publisher before submitting. Are they listed on Poets & Writers? Do they have a website? Are the editors established authors? If in doubt Winning Writers has a great list of vanity publishers to avoid as does the Library of Congress.
Not all publishers will pay you to print your work nor give you a free print or digital copy, but avoid publishers who charge exorbitant reading fees, offer a certificate of inclusion, or demand you buy copies in lieu of paying you for your labor. There are plenty of opportunities out there, so numerous that you should not have to pay to get published.
Read the contract and don’t completely sign away your rights. Make sure the poem copyright reverts back to you after publication, so that you can include it in your own collection later.
Facebook Groups listing Publication Calls
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/2683641318572973
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/2068041726554759
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/860877037424122
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/685134431617626
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/156020074604805/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/35517751475/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/cfp.criterion.galaxy/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/submityourwork/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/58414389316/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1271611216242410/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/anthologysubmissions/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/643605400236835/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/NoFeeCallForSubmission/
Note from the editor:
Since 2020 I was very focused on becoming more widely published as a poet. My original goal was to be published in 6 anthologies so that I could have an official listing on the Poets & Writers‘ directory. By 2026 that number blossomed to 100 anthologies.
I got pretty good at locating opportunities, and began to share them with members of the Vallejo Poetry Society. Because it became too labor intensive, I have taken a step back from local event promotion and searching for these calls.
Some publishers like Moonstone Arts Center and Alien Buddha Press have multiple calls for submission on a regular basis, and have a proven publication history. I’d also recommend checking for submission calls from Vagabond Books, Inner Child Press, B Cubed Press, Colossus Press, CivicLeicester, and Pure Slush. You can see a list of my publications and use your favorite search engine to find their official websites and check for open calls. The non-anthology publications that have featured me the most are Emerge Magazine, the Benicia Herald’s Going the Distance column, and Fevers of the Mind.
Some San Francisco Bay Area groups put out an annual anthology, including the Benicia First Tuesday Poets, the Marin Poetry Center, the Ina Coolbrith Circle , the Redwood Writers Club, the Napa Valley Writers, and the Revolutionary Poets Brigade. Some of these groups require membership and dues prior to submission. Festivals like the Rio Grande Valley Poetry Festival, National Beat Poetry Festival, and Waco Word Fest also publish anthologies.
There are so many opportunities out there that if you hold out for the right one, you won’t be paying someone to reject your work. Publishers vary in practice from those who charge a reader fee or ask that you buy a copy of the paperback to those who will pay you for your submission and/or give you a pdf or paperback copy of the final product. It’s up to your budget what opportunities you decide to pursue.
I recommend researching the publisher to make sure the publisher is a legitimate organization with a real web presence run by an experienced editor. If they are looking to charge you a ridiculous fee to be published or charge the reader a hundreds of dollars to read the final book, it is most likely a vanity press or a scam. Winning Writers and the Library of Congress both have a great list of vanity publishers to avoid. Check websites like Writer Beware for the latest news on author scams.
A longer version of this note originally appeared here.