➡️ The second annual ONLY POEMS POET OF THE YEAR PRIZE is NOW OPEN*

The $18 entry fee includes a complimentary one-year ONLY POEMS Membership (worth $99). You will receive information about how to activate this towards the end of this submission period (April-May). We hope that every single poet who submits to the ONLY POEMS Prize receives more than just a contest entry. If you already have a paid subscription, we’ll add another complimentary year to that). 

Our Grand Prize winner will be named Poet of the Year and receive $3000. 

Four finalists will be awarded $500 each. 

We will also select some Honorable Mentions. They will be offered publication as our Poet of the Week with the regular $77 payment. 

The Poet of the Year will also receive a lifetime membership to ONLY POEMS. Four finalists will receive a one-year Friend-tier membership.

As we do with our Poet of the Week series, we will publish 3-10 poems of all 5 winners alongside an extensive interview. 

Indie lit is full of award-winning poems while awards for poets are reserved mostly for their books. We want to publish poets who make a home in our hearts with their voices and never leave. That’s why this poetry award is not for the single best poem but rather for the poet whose body of work we feel is or will be full of one award-winning poem after another.  

➡️ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
 

• Your submission must be between 5-10 pages.
• Submissions are open internationally to any poet writing in English.
• The poems must have been previously unpublished at the time of submission.
• Submit all your poems in a single document (.doc or .pdf). Begin each poem on a new page.
• Do not include your name or identifying information in the document or the title of your submission. 
• We encourage simultaneous submissions. Once you’ve submitted, you are not required to withdraw any poems. Even if all the poems in your submitted packet get published, that’s fine (and so freakin’ cool!). You will not be ineligible for the ONLY POEMS POET OF THE YEAR PRIZE — if we're interested in your work, we will find a way to work with you.
• We do accept multiple submissions, but each submission must come with the reading fee. Though we do not encourage these, sometimes you might have two or three different sets of poems you’d like to try for an award and we welcome those.
• All submissions will be considered for general publication for our Poet of the Week series.
• We want to provide poets the opportunity to get comprehensive feedback on their work. We understand how hard it can be to receive affordable, quality feedback. If you’d like, you’re welcome to use one of the options below when making your submission.  (25 slots available for each editorial feedback category — first come first serve).

Send us up to 10 pages of poetry.

We only accept previously uncurated work.  This means that yes — you can submit poems that have previously appeared across social media, blog posts, Discord channels, scribbled on your foggy bathroom mirror, etc. But if a poem has been published in a magazine or anthology edited by someone who’s not your mom, then no.

We encourage simultaneous submissions. Feel free to submit your work to all the wonderful places you think will be a good home for your poems. Do not withdraw your poems if they get accepted elsewhere — if we like your work, we’ll find a way to work with you.

If we have previously declined your submission, you can submit again whenever (we get it, we're unhinged poets too lol). 

Though our general response time is 3-4 months, in this category we'll respond within 2 weeks. Sometimes, if we are considering your work for publication, this might take 3 weeks in total. We might also email you separately in this event to request more poems. 

We offer $77 to all our published poets. This is per contribution and not per piece.