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.**
Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
The 2025 Myths & Fables Prize
In our continued celebration of imagination, storytelling, and the power of archetype, Frontier Poetry is thrilled to announce the Myths & Fables Prize. In her poem “Circe’s Power,” Louise Glück invokes the voice of the sorceress: “I never turned anyone into a pig. / Some people are pigs; I make them / look like pigs.” With chilling clarity, she peels back the veil of fantasy to reveal something deeply human—desire, illusion, transformation. These ancient tales, passed down through firelight and ink, still echo in our modern hearts.
We invite you to lend your voice to this lineage. The 2025 Myths & Fables Prize seeks poems that engage with mythological figures, cultural lore, personal legends, and reimagined fairy tales. Whether you’re unearthing stories from your heritage, wrestling with gods and monsters, or crafting your own fable from the smoke of memory—send us work that is fearless, lyrical, and rich in poetic craft.
We welcome traditional retellings and radical departures. Invented myths, fractured fairy tales, elegies for forgotten heroes, or whispered epics—let your poetry become the spell.
Frontier Poetry warmly encourages submissions from poets of all identities, cultural backgrounds, and traditions. We are especially interested in work that explores underrepresented mythologies and stories not often given space in the Western literary canon.
Guest judge Jennifer Chang will select the winners. The first-place winner will receive $3000 and publication. The second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200, respectively, along with publication. All finalists will be considered for paid publication in New Voices.
Let the myths rise.
This contest opens July 1st and closes September 7th.
Further reading for inspiration can be found here:
- Circe's Power by Louise Gluck
- Fable for a Genome by Heather Green
- The Uncursing of the Medusa by Ola Faleti
- Refusing Eurydice by Ladan Osman
- At Ithaca by Hilda Doolittle (H.D)
- conjuring by Xiao Yue Shan
About the Guest Judge:
Jennifer Chang is the author of The History of Anonymity, Some Say the Lark, and An Authentic Life, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Her other honors include the William Carlos Williams Award, the Levinson Prize from Poetry, and fellowships to the Elizabeth Murray Artists Residency, MacDowell, and Yaddo. She teaches at the University of Texas in Austin and is the poetry editor of New England Review.
What Chang Is Looking For:
I admire most the poems that invite me to feel and think something new. Startling, yet precise language moves me. Whatever expands my imagination, suddenly alters the weather (emotional, meteorological), stops time, and/or brings me closer to a truth, I welcome. I am open to and curious about all aesthetics. I love the sentence and I love the line and I love when the two are in collusion. Poems are composed of fragments, and it is the poem that invokes what’s been left out or lost that can break me open in the best, most devastating way.
Guidelines:
- Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
- Send us only your best, polished work—unpublished poems only, please.
- As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we are offering a free submission window for poets from historically marginalized groups at the beginning of the contest until we reach our cap of fifty.
- Please do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- We ask for no more than three poems (five pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. We have no particular aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
- Each entry requires a submission fee of $20.
- Multiple submissions (of up to three poems apiece) are allowed, but each requires a separate entry fee.
- Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio. Also include any content warnings in consideration of our reading staff.
- Work generated by AI will be automatically disqualified.
- Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing primarily in English. Some code-switching/meshing is very welcome.
- Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with the guest judge.
- If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, email us: contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.
- The deadline is September 7th, 2025. We plan to announce winners and finalists in Fall 2025.
Editorial Feedback Option:
This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on your submission, 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. Please allow eight to ten weeks after the contest closes to receive your feedback.
The 2025 Myths & Fables Prize
This is only for historically marginalized poets.
In our continued celebration of imagination, storytelling, and the power of archetype, Frontier Poetry is thrilled to announce the Myths & Fables Prize. In her poem “Circe’s Power,” Louise Glück invokes the voice of the sorceress: “I never turned anyone into a pig. / Some people are pigs; I make them / look like pigs.” With chilling clarity, she peels back the veil of fantasy to reveal something deeply human—desire, illusion, transformation. These ancient tales, passed down through firelight and ink, still echo in our modern hearts.
We invite you to lend your voice to this lineage. The 2025 Myths & Fables Prize seeks poems that engage with mythological figures, cultural lore, personal legends, and reimagined fairy tales. Whether you’re unearthing stories from your heritage, wrestling with gods and monsters, or crafting your own fable from the smoke of memory—send us work that is fearless, lyrical, and rich in poetic craft.
We welcome traditional retellings and radical departures. Invented myths, fractured fairy tales, elegies for forgotten heroes, or whispered epics—let your poetry become the spell.
Frontier Poetry warmly encourages submissions from poets of all identities, cultural backgrounds, and traditions. We are especially interested in work that explores underrepresented mythologies and stories not often given space in the Western literary canon.
Guest judge Jennifer Chang will select the winners. The first-place winner will receive $3000 and publication. The second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200, respectively, along with publication. All finalists will be considered for paid publication in New Voices.
Let the myths rise.
This contest opens July 1st and closes September 7th.
Further reading for inspiration can be found here:
- Circe's Power by Louise Gluck
- Fable for a Genome by Heather Green
- The Uncursing of the Medusa by Ola Faleti
- Refusing Eurydice by Ladan Osman
- At Ithaca by Hilda Doolittle (H.D)
- conjuring by Xiao Yue Shan
About the Guest Judge:
Jennifer Chang is the author of The History of Anonymity, Some Say the Lark, and An Authentic Life, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Her other honors include the William Carlos Williams Award, the Levinson Prize from Poetry, and fellowships to the Elizabeth Murray Artists Residency, MacDowell, and Yaddo. She teaches at the University of Texas in Austin and is the poetry editor of New England Review.
What Chang Is Looking For:
I admire most the poems that invite me to feel and think something new. Startling, yet precise language moves me. Whatever expands my imagination, suddenly alters the weather (emotional, meteorological), stops time, and/or brings me closer to a truth, I welcome. I am open to and curious about all aesthetics. I love the sentence and I love the line and I love when the two are in collusion. Poems are composed of fragments, and it is the poem that invokes what’s been left out or lost that can break me open in the best, most devastating way."
Guidelines:
- Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
- Send us only your best, polished work—unpublished poems only, please.
- As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we are offering a free submission window for poets from historically marginalized groups at the beginning of the contest until we reach our cap of fifty.
- Please do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- We ask for no more than three poems (five pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. We have no particular aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
- Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio. Also include any content warnings in consideration of our reading staff.
- Work generated by AI will be automatically disqualified.
- Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing primarily in English. Some code-switching/meshing is very welcome.
- Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with the guest judge.
- If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, email us: contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.
- The deadline is September 7th, 2025. We plan to announce winners and finalists in Fall 2025.
Editorial Feedback Option:
This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on your submission, 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. Please allow eight to ten weeks after the contest closes to receive your feedback.
We have a problem in publishing. The 2019 Diversity in Publishing survey found that on average almost 80% of people shaping the publishing industry are white. When this was published, that statistic had not shifted significantly for years. This reality perpetuates the systematic exclusion of historically marginalized writers that will not change unless those with literary platforms and thus some degree of power actively strive to change it.
Toward that end, we at Frontier are offering this space as an opportunity for Black writers, Indigenous writers, and writers of color (BIPOC) to get fast results on their submissions. We'll do our best to get you a decision on your poetry within two to four weeks. Your voice is valued here, and we welcome your work.
These submissions will be considered for our New Voices poetry category.
Guidelines
- Submissions are open internationally for historically marginalized BIPOC writers only.
- Submissions are open to new and emerging poets with 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 via Submittable if your work is picked up elsewhere (we want to say congrats!)
- All submissions must be no more than ten pages and no more than five poems.
- We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
- Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history, if any.
- Expect two to four weeks for a response.
- Publication in our New Voices category includes a payment of $50 per poem.
- Please review our FAQ page for more information. Almost all other questions are answered here: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq
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 ten pages and no more than five 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 six to eight 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. Please note, the time frame for Ed Letters is eight to twelve weeks from the time of submission.