Welcome home, poet.
Frontier Poetry began with the simple mission of being a platform for emerging poets—to uplift, to prepare, and to inspire.
We are looking for poets and poems that strive to place themselves at the edge of what language can do. This does not mean we are only concerned with experimental poetry. We believe sonnets can be at the frontier, book-length poems can be at the frontier, confessional poetry can be at the frontier—as long as a piece is constructed with exceptional consideration for language, craft, and heart, that poem is a fit for us.
Work by new and underrepresented voices is one of our priorities in publication. We take our role as a mediating platform between poet and world seriously and strive to use this role as fairly and justly as we can. The frontier land of poetry, that distant landscape where all voices can be heard clearly and in abundance, where poets from all contexts feel empowered to step into their writing—we seek that place, and hope to plant ourselves in its beauty.
By submitting to Frontier Poetry, submitters agree to receive correspondence about new work and submission opportunities from Frontier Poetry. You can unsubscribe at any time.
**If you haven't already, please verify your email address with Submittable for more consistent communication.**
In our pursuit to celebrate the outstanding poets of our present times, Frontier annually hosts a prize for all poets, regardless of publication history. We invite you to send your best work to the OPEN, our biggest prize of the year! The winning poem will be awarded $5,000 and publication.
In addition to the winner, nine finalists will also receive an award of $100 each with publication. The Frontier editorial team will work together to select winners and finalists for this contest.
While we primarily serve as a platform for new and emerging writers, the OPEN is meant to support and elevate the poetry community as a whole. Every year, we look forward to this prize, for which emerging and established poets are considered in equal measure and as a result are often published side by side in Frontier Poetry. We’re excited to read your work!
Guidelines
- Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
- As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, there is a free submission window for BIPOC poets at the beginning of the contest until our cap of fifty. Please note the portal will close when we hit our cap.
- Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
- Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than twelve pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
- Please submit unpublished poems only.
- We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- You may submit multiple times, but each submission requires a separate $20 fee.
- Please include a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history.
- Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily written in English.
- Winners and finalists will be announced in the fall of 2023.
- Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with Frontier’s editors.
- If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can send an email to contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.
Editorial Feedback Option
This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on a poem of your choice from your packet, including suggestions for future submissions. The $149 option will provide you with three letters from three different editors. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee and all are astute and professional poets.
Included Opportunities
As a thank you for your support for Frontier, we're able to offer these unique opportunities:
The Poetry School is offering every submitter a 20% off discount code (average of $28 value) to one of their online courses! Head to their platform, find a course you're interested in, and use the code included in the confirmation message at checkout.
Submissions for our New Voices poetry category are open year round to any new and emerging poet who has not published more than one full-length collection of poetry. New Voices are published online only and will feature a number of poems from new authors each month.
We are thrilled to offer significant payment to our partner poets: $50 per poem, up to $150. We are proud to be paying for published pieces but will be highly selective in our choices for publication.
We also warmly invite under-represented and marginalized voices to submit. Our aim is to be an accurate representation of the diversity of our beautiful community. Your voice is valued here.
Guidelines
- Submissions are open to new and emerging poets only (no more than two full-length published works forthcoming at the time of submission—email us about self-published works)
- We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere (We want to say congrats!)
- All submissions must be no more than 10 pages and no more than 5 poems.
- We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
- Please include a cover letter with your publication history
- Expect 8-12 weeks for a response
- Please review our FAQ page for more information. Almost all other questions are answered here: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq
Editorial Feedback Option
This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on a poem of your choice from the submission, including suggestions for future submissions. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee (at EFA rates) and are all incredibly astute and professional poets.
We have a problem in publishing. The 2019 survey of industry professionals found that, "There is no discernible change to any of the other racial categories. In other words, the field is just as White today as it was four years ago." If we all don't work to individually push for progress, then progress stagnates. We can't rely on anyone but ourselves to move the needle.
Toward that end, we're offering this space as an opportunity for BIPOC writers to get fast results on their submissions. Your voice is valued here.
These will be considered as submissions for our New Voices poetry category. New Voices are published online only and will feature a number of poems from new authors each month.
We are thrilled to offer significant payment to our partner poets: $50 per poem, up to $150. We are proud to be paying for published pieces but will be highly selective in our choices for publication.
Guidelines
- Submissions are open to all self-identifying BIPOC authors
- Submissions are open to new and emerging poets only (no more than one full-length published work forthcoming at the time of submission—email us about self-published works)
- We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere (We want to say congrats!)
- All submissions must be no more than 10 pages and no more than 5 poems.
- We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
- Please include a cover letter with your publication history
- Expect 2-4 weeks for a response
- Please review our FAQ page for more information. Almost all other questions are answered here: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq