Poetry Open

It was tough deciding that we would hold just this one last poetry competition, but the decision is made. (There are many great poetry journals, but there are just not enough publications out there dedicated strictly to literary fiction.)

Please give us this last opportunity to read your best original, unpublished poetry! (We don’t publish poetry for children, I’m sorry.) Multiple submissions are fine. (You can send more than one submission per competition, if you like, or submit the same poem to a later competition, if you like.) No simultaneous submissions, please. When we accept a poem for publication, we are purchasing first-publication rights. (Once we’ve published your poem, you are free to, for instance, include it in your own collection.)

Note: In an effort to save our backs from heavy mail buckets, we ask that you send your work via our new online submission procedure. It’s easy, and will save you postage and paper. Just click the “ONLINE SUBMISSIONS” button at left to get started!

Dates:

October, 2003. Results on March 1st.

Reading fee: $6 per poem.

Prizes: Because this will be our LAST Poetry Open, we're increasing the first-place prize to $750 (instead of $500) plus publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue. 2nd/ 3rd-place: $250/$100, respectively.

Other considerations:

Open to all writers, all themes, all lengths. So, please, have at it!

We look forward to reading your work!

And that’s in some sense what makes poetry exciting. It’s outlaw-like. It’s almost heresy. It’s saying, “Don’t go forward. Stop for a moment and understand where you’re standing. Just understand this moment.” —Alberto Ríos, interviewed by Susan McInnis