Editor Interview: Poetry Online

Accessible poetry & art

Sumou Mag, Passages North, Mizna, ctrl+v, Split This Rock: The Quarry, New Delta Review, Foglifter Journal, Poetry Review, Granta, Rhino, ANMLY, stellium lit, Orion, AAWW: The Margins, New Ohio Review, sin? (Sine Theta) Magazine, Diode Editions, Noemi Press, Nightboat Books, Milkweed Editions, Poetry Asylum, Graywolf Press, Coffeehouse Press, futurefeed, Flypaper Lit, & Radix Media

Favorite writers/artists include Loisa Fenichell, Douglas Kearney, Solmaz Sharif, Marie Howe, Hajjar Baban, Noor Ibn Najm, Fargo Tbakhi, George Abraham, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Noor Hindi, & so many more.

Not only do we accept submissions for written, visual, and cine poems, we are [most importantly] committed to making them accessible to as many readers as possible. Each poem includes [when applicable] captioning, audio recording, image description, and image alt-text. We are determined to create a literary space that is truly open to all readers [in the English speaking world].

Don't be shy! Send us whatever you're most excited about, whether it's off-the-walls experimental or gut-wrenching and formalist. We love it all, and we want to showcase all.

The ideal submission comes in a legible font with all [written] poems in one file. Since we often publish single poems from authors, there's no need to arrange your submission by theme or project. We want poems that hit hard every read.

I don't think submitters get much wrong. But if you are submitting written poetry, please make sure it's an all-in-one file, multi-file uploads are for visual and cine work only.

We appreciate cover letters, though they certainly do not determine publishability. We have published multiple poets' debut/first-ever poem publications, as well as anthologized poets.

Since we're reading poems--and they are generally short in length--often, we read every single page and poem. Poems usually get multiple reads before a decision is made.

It's not uncommon that we accept poems conditional on small suggested edits we'd like to make. We know a lot of venues don't care to edit the work they publish, but we really enjoy being a part of your publication process at the line level.

Since we have such a fast turn-around time, usually between one [1] day and (often much sooner than) thirty [30] days. I am pretty glued to our submission manager when I'm not in class or at work. Submissions are acknowledged within a few hours and editors begin voting [yes/no/maybe] on each submission. Poems are discussed and decision[s] are made shortly after. It's never a dull day, really.

Authors should expect minimal (but present) edits. Sometimes we aim for consistent use of a device--whether sound or punctuation or just hone a line in. Edits are largely minimal and will be noted in our acceptance email. So, authors shouldn't expect any surprises upon publication! Edits, of course, are subject to both parties being happy! We don't want to publish a poem if you don't want to!

Yes! We are coming into our first year of award season. Awards we nominated include: Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Best American Series, when applicable.