Poem of the Week—Guidelines

Poetry is the heartbeat of imaginative prose, and at Narrative we do all we can to encourage the conversation between poetry and prose. Each week we select a notable poem and feature it prominently in the Poem of the Week column on our home page. An announcement of each new Poem of the Week goes out to our readers, and the poem is eligible for selection as one of the annual Top Five Poems of the Week. The poem is also permanently available in our Archive.

Poetry submissions may contain up to five poems. Your submission should give a strong sense of your style and range. We accept submissions of all poetic forms and genres but do not accept translations.

Click here to submit your work.

Visibility: Each week an email announcement of the new Poem of the Week goes out to our 120,000 readers and attracts attention to the writer’s work. Additionally, all Poems of the Week remain available in our online Archive and are listed on the Poem of the Week page. When the annual Top Five Poems are selected at the end of each year, an announcement goes out, and the poems are prominently published as an award group in Narrative.

Author Payment: Authors are paid $25 (reprints) to $50 for a poem published as a Poem of the Week, and authors of poems chosen as one of the Top Five Poems of the Week will receive $200. And all the Poems of the Week written by new and emerging writers are eligible for our annual $4,000 Narrative Prize.

Submission Fee: There is a $16 submission fee for each entry.

Selection: Some weeks we will select a notable poem from Copper Canyon Press’s backlist or from other sources as a way of indicating the level of quality and interest that we seek in Poems of the Week and as a mark of continuity with long-standing literary values.

Submission Guidelines: Please read our Submission Guidelines for manuscript formatting and other information.

Other Submission Categories: In addition to Poem of the Week, please review our other Submission Categories for areas that may interest you.