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.
Healing begins when someone bears witness. I saw you. I believe you.
As poets, we begin our journey by bearing witness. Poetry is the language of observation and we often see signs and symbols in the world that others overlook. But we can’t always stay on the sidelines—sometimes life throws us into the world before we’re ready, which can lead to undue harm. We all feel pain, but the question then becomes: What can we do with it?
The quote above is from Olivia Benson, protagonist of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, played by Mariska Hargitay. The link between this television show and our poetry contest might not be obvious, but Hargitay not only bears witness in her twenty-five year run as Detective Olivia Benson, she commits to protect the most vulnerable among us and fosters a space for healing as well. Her dedication is admirable, and we at Frontier are making the same promise. Let’s not forget that the word “poem” comes from the Greek word for “create.” It’s not just about seeing or believing, it’s about what you make from what you’ve seen and what you’ve learned.
This year’s Hurt & Healing Prize is about expressing our pain, but it’s also about celebrating all we have overcome. It is also a call to action—an invitation to support each other in the darkest times. We may feel as if the path forward isn’t clear—but as a community, we answer these questions together.
Further reading for inspiration can be found here:
“Am I Going to Kill My Daughter” | The Poetry Foundation
“Grief” | The Poetry Foundation
The first place winner will receive $3,000 and publication. Second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200 respectively, as well as publication.
About Our Judge:
Robert Wood Lynn is a poet from Virginia. He is the author of the collection Mothman Apologia (Yale University Press, 2022) and the chapbook How to Maintain Eye Contact (Button Poetry, 2023). He is the recipient of the 2021 Yale Younger Poets Prize, the 2023 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and a 2023 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship. His work has been featured in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, POETRY, The Yale Review, and other publications. He teaches poetry at Juilliard and Brooklyn Poets.
What our judge is looking for:
I am honored to be asked to jury Frontier’s poetry contest themed on hurt and healing, because so much of the work of poetry happens in this space of change—hurt and healing not simply or even necessarily as subject but as experience, since that is what a poem is: an experience rather than a recounting. I am interested in poems that wound us gently, or that restore something inside us, or both. Poems that help us reach the interior and emotional spaces no other medium could. That let language work indirectly, through image, metaphor, surprise, and play, to accomplish things impossible in straightforward retelling.
Guidelines:
- Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (for this contest, we define this as poets with no more than one full-length published work forthcoming at the time of submission).
- Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than five pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry. Each new submission requires a $20 reading fee.
- As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we offer a free submission window for poets from historically marginalized groups (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled community, et cetera) at the beginning of the contest until our cap of fifty. This submission category has reached its cap and is now closed.
- Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
- 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 provide a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history and any applicable content warnings.
- 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.
- Please do not submit work if you have a personal relationship with the judge.
- If you haven’t already, please verify your email address with Submittable for more consistent communication.
- We will not accept AI-generated work for this contest.
- If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page first. 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.
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.