Poetry Bulletin: February 2025

Waive-to-play, important fee support update, and three upcoming deadlines

We’re having a true winter here in northern Michigan… sending you this bright moment with the ice shelf along Lake Michigan.

Hi poets — this is a quick version of the usual monthly post, since January and February have already been busy with the annual publisher update and the special update on reading periods for first books.

Part three of the annual update, coming soon: A breakdown of compensation across the 170+ reading periods. A massive thank you to everyone who is part of this work with a paid subscription. You make this research possible, and half of your paid support goes to poets who need a boost to cover submission fees.

Fee support: Are you submitting a book in 2025?

Requests for submission fee support are now open again:

• Fee support is confidential.

• It covers a max of three submissions per poet, as funds are available.

• Open to poets submitting poetry CHAPBOOKS or FULL-LENGTH poetry collections.

• Try to email at least one week before your deadline. My inbox is a loud place and I struggle to keep up, so I can’t help with last-minute deadlines.

• Please don’t be shy if you could use a boost to get your book out there! Just drop me an email with where you’re submitting and the fees.

Important! How I get the funds to you—

I can get you funds via Paypal, and only to your personal Paypal account. I know there are limitations in certain countries, and sometimes a “go-between” is used (i.e., a friend takes the funds on your behalf). This isn’t an option for this project now.

In the past year, there have been issues with people impersonating poets, and Paypal has flagged my account on a handful of transactions. This has been time-consuming to deal with and could put all of the submission support at risk… for the sake of this project and my own work, I can’t afford to get blocked by Paypal, so I’ve had to tighten up some of the process here.

With all of this work, I’m doing the best I can, with the resources we’ve got, as things happen… thanks for understanding.

Waive-to-play: An update on publisher eligibility

There will be no more free advertising in these monthly posts for publishers excluding the poets who can’t pay to play.

The monthly bulletin reaches over 5,000 subscribers and generates views well beyond that (almost 13,000 in the past 30 days). This project consistently sends traffic to presses and submission opportunities—very likely giving a nice bump to submissions made and submission fees paid.

So, in the spirit of those presses who say they depend on exclusionary submission practices to survive, it’s time to adjust the cost of admission to the Poetry Bulletin.

These monthly updates are now a waive-to-play opportunity. If a press wants to be read by this audience, they can offer zero-fee reading periods, fee waivers for poets who need them, or other creative options, as shared in this newsletter many times.

Upcoming Deadlines for Poetry Manuscripts

Between now and early March, there are three reading periods with presses that do not exclude poets based on their ability to pay. As in: they either charge no submission fee, or if they charge a fee, they offer fee waivers or support.

Note that last I checked, none of these have committed to PACBI.

• Feb 23 — Sarabande Books - Kathryn A. Morton Prize — fee waivers available by emailing: info@sarabandebooks.org

• Feb 28 — Omnidawn First + Second book contest — fee waivers available by emailing: free.entry@omnidawn.com

• March 15 — Word Works Washington Prize — fee waivers available by emailing: editor@wordworksbooks.org

Why PACBI?

If you’re submitting and writing in solidarity with those facing genocide, PACBI is one clear way to find publishers who are in the work too. Publishers for Palestine and Writers Against the War on Gaza have lists of presses committed to PACBI. We know boycotting and protesting works—check out the recent example of the Giller Prize. Don’t be afraid to ask a potential publisher where they stand before you trust them with your work.

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The bulletin is made by Emily Stoddard, and the big list of poetry publishers came together as she found a publisher (Game Over Books) for her poetry debut, Divination with a Human Heart Attached. If you have updates to a publisher’s listing or want to share a resource, leave a comment. Comments are preferred to email replies when possible, as they get the information out to everyone more freely and quickly.