The question of where to submit your poems is one that most guides approach wrong. They offer ranked lists as if publication were a ladder, each rung indistinguishable from the next. It is not. The question is not which journals are most prestigious, though prestige matters; it is which journals are the right home for the work you are making. Those are different questions, and they require different answers.
What follows is a tiered guide — not a comprehensive ranking but a curated one — covering the journals worth your serious attention. Read each journal before you submit. This cannot be overstated: editors know immediately whether a submission comes from someone who has read the journal or from someone who has merely read about it. The difference is felt on the page.
Before you submit
Every serious journal will tell you to read their guidelines. Do this. Guidelines are not bureaucratic impositions; they tell you what the editors actually want — how many poems, what format, whether they accept simultaneous submissions, how long they take to respond. Ignoring them signals that you do not take the process seriously.
Most journals now use Submittable or a similar platform. Most charge a small reading fee — typically two to four dollars — to cover the cost of the platform. A few waive fees for subscribers. Some of the most prestigious journals, including Poetry Magazine, charge no fee at all. Do not let a small reading fee deter you from submitting to a journal you admire; do not pay large fees to journals you have never read.
Most journals now accept simultaneous submissions — meaning you can send the same poem to more than one journal at the same time. A few prestigious journals do not (the New Yorker, for instance). Always check. If a poem is accepted, withdraw it from all other journals immediately. This is an ethical obligation, not merely a guideline.
Keep a simple spreadsheet: poem title, journal, date submitted, outcome. After twenty submissions you will not be able to track this in your head.
Send your strongest work. The instinct to hold back your best poems — to save them for a more important submission — is understandable but mistaken. Editors remember names and voices. A strong poem submitted early builds a relationship with a journal. A weak submission burns it.
Top-tier journals
These journals are the most competitive in the field, with acceptance rates of one to three percent. Publication here carries real weight in a poet's career. Submit your absolute best work. Response times are typically two to six months.
The oldest and most established poetry journal in the United States, published by the Poetry Foundation. Pays $10 per line — among the highest rates in the field. Accepts a wide range of styles and has published virtually every significant American poet of the past century. No submission fee. Submit via their website.
One of the most prestigious literary magazines in the English language. Pays $300 per poem — the highest flat rate among major journals. Poetry submissions are open in January, April, July, and October. Favours contemporary work with a strong voice and clear image. The review does not accept simultaneous submissions for poetry.
Published four times a year by Emerson College, with guest-edited issues in spring and summer that shift the aesthetic considerably depending on the editor. Worth tracking who is editing each issue — a Ploughshares issue guest-edited by a poet whose sensibility aligns with yours is worth targeting specifically. Subscribers submit for free.
Extraordinarily competitive — one of the most read and most rejected-from journals in the world. The New Yorker does not accept simultaneous submissions, which means poems submitted here cannot be sent elsewhere while under consideration. Worth submitting if your work genuinely suits their register: accessible, formally accomplished, often wry or observational. Response times can be very long.
One of the most widely read poetry journals in the country, published six times a year. Has published more than 8,000 writers since its founding and consistently features major figures alongside emerging voices. Strong and consistent editorial vision.
Strong mid-tier journals
These journals carry real prestige and are read seriously by editors, publishers, and MFA programmes. Acceptance is difficult — typically five to ten percent — but not as vanishingly rare as the top tier. Publication here, particularly in multiple journals over time, builds a meaningful publication record. Several of them pay well.
One of the most respected literary quarterlies in the country, published by Middlebury College. Editorially rigorous and consistently excellent in poetry and prose. Has published major work by poets across generations. Worth reading carefully before submitting — the journal has a distinct sensibility: serious, formally attentive, not given to easy effects.
One of the oldest and most distinguished literary magazines in America. Published by Kenyon College in Ohio. Reads widely across styles and forms. Its online journal, KROnline, publishes additional work and has slightly different submission windows. Worth targeting both.
Published by Boston University, AGNI has an international reputation and publishes formally accomplished work with emotional resonance. Seeks poetry that earns its difficulty — not obscure for its own sake, but precise and surprising. Pays $20 per printed page.
Founded in 1935 at Louisiana State University and consistently one of the most respected literary quarterlies in the South and the country. Has published major poets across its history and continues to seek work with formal ambition and emotional depth. Reading fee applies.
Rattle occupies a distinctive position in the field: serious about craft, populist in spirit, and unusually generous in payment — $100 per poem with no submission fee. It publishes poets at all stages of their careers and runs an annual Rattle Poetry Prize. Read it to understand the register: accessible without being sentimental, formal without being academic. A good target for poets building a publication record.
Pays the highest flat rate of any journal on this list — $400 per poem — which makes it worth noting, though the competition is correspondingly fierce. Published quarterly in Berkeley, it favours shorter lyric poems with intellectual depth and clear formal control. Quarterly publication means fewer slots, but each issue carries weight.
Emerging-friendly journals with real editorial vision
These journals have genuine literary standards but tend to have higher acceptance rates — typically eight to fifteen percent — and are more likely to take risks on work that is formally ambitious, experimental, or unfamiliar in subject matter. They are not consolation prizes; they are the journals where important contemporary work first appears.
Published by the University of Colorado Denver, Copper Nickel publishes translation alongside original work and brings an international perspective to its poetry selections. Pays $40 per poem. A good journal for work that is formally inventive or that operates in translation's shadow — aware of other languages and traditions.
Published by the College of Charleston and known for publishing experimental and formally ambitious work by emerging writers. Pays in contributor copies rather than cash, but Crazyhorse is genuinely read and respected. Worth targeting if your work pushes against conventional expectations.
A significant online journal with a strong reputation among younger poets and a genuine commitment to discovering new voices. Publication here circulates widely online. Particularly worth considering for poets who are earlier in their careers and whose work is formally contemporary.
Published by the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on work that engages with contemporary social and political questions through craft. Pays $50 per poem. Worth reading carefully for register — it publishes serious, engaged work that does not sacrifice lyric quality for topical relevance.
One of the oldest continuously published poetry journals in America, with no submission fee and a genuine openness to work across traditions and registers. Has a long history of publishing major poets early in their careers. Worth targeting for its range and its willingness to consider formally ambitious and experimental work.
For poets in the Pacific Northwest — or for poets whose work has a meaningful relationship with place, landscape, and the natural world — Poetry Northwest is worth prioritising. It is regionally rooted but nationally read, and it publishes work of genuine distinction. Ink & Ribbon Press is a Bainbridge Island publisher and we feel an affinity with its community.
Single-poem prizes worth your attention
Poetry prizes that award a single poem — rather than a collection or manuscript — are a distinct category worth treating seriously. The entry fee functions similarly to a submission fee, and the prize amounts can be significant. More importantly, they force you to identify your strongest single poem and stand behind it.
The major single-poem prizes include the Rattle Poetry Prize ($10,000 for a single poem), various annual prizes from journals like Boulevard and the Mid-American Review, and a number of small press awards. Read the terms carefully — some prizes require unpublished work, some request first rights, some are open only in certain windows.
The LemonLight Prize 2026 — Desire Lines
Our annual single-poem prize awards $3,000 to one poem on the theme of Desire Lines. Judged this year by Leila Chatti. Submissions close May 30, 2026. The winning poem is printed and mailed to all Bound Circle patrons.
Submit to the LemonLight Prize →Submitting a manuscript to Ink & Ribbon Press
Ink & Ribbon Press publishes two to three book-length poetry collections per year in limited editions of 250 copies. We work closely with each poet through a rigorous editorial process and produce books designed to endure as both literary and physical objects. We are a slow publisher — which means we take very few books, and we take them seriously.
If you have a book-length manuscript — typically forty-eight to eighty pages of poetry — that you believe is ready, we would like to hear from you. We are looking for work that functions as a cohesive whole, not merely a gathering of poems. We favour collections with a strong narrative arc and a clear, distinctive voice. We are particularly interested in work that is heart-forward: emotionally committed without being sentimental, formally thoughtful without being academic.
Full submission guidelines, including what to send and how, are on our submissions page.
Practical advice
Submit regularly. The writers who build publication records do so through consistent, systematic effort — not through occasional inspired bursts. Set a target: two or three new submissions per month. Track your submissions. When a poem is rejected, revise it if revision is warranted, then send it somewhere new.
Do not personalise rejections. Most journal rejections are form letters. An editorial note — even a brief one — is significant and worth noting. A request to see more work is more significant still. But most rejections carry no meaning about the quality of your work; they carry meaning only about the fit between your work and what a particular editor needed for a particular issue at a particular moment.
"Read before you submit. Editors know immediately whether a submission comes from someone who has read the journal or from someone who has merely read about it."
Read the journals you submit to. This is not a formality. It is how you develop a sense of what is possible, what is being done, what your work is in conversation with. The best poets are voracious readers of contemporary poetry. If you are not reading Poetry, Ploughshares, and a handful of the journals on this list regularly, you are submitting blind.
For guidance on preparing your work for submission, see our articles on how to format a poetry manuscript and how to write a cover letter for poetry submissions.
