Every month, the ONLY POEMS Substack features a Poem of the Month. 

The “Poem of the Month” is accompanied by both a contributor’s and an editor’s note, as well as a custom piece of artwork created by Derek Mueller. 

Beyond creating more exciting ways for poetry to shine through in the world, we wish to make the editorial process more transparent.

Why do some poems stand out?

Each month has a new form or theme. For this submission window, running from May 1 to May 15, the form is PROSE POEM.

The winning “Poem of the Month” will be published on May 30.

The winner will be offered $22 for this contribution plus a 6-month comp to our Substack.

You may submit only   one prose poem. 

While the submissions for the Poem of the Month category are free, there is also a $5 tip-jar option and a $20 feedback option. These help us sustain the magazine.

We will strive to respond to all submissions by May 24. The winner will be announced May 29.

Thank you! We look forward to reading your prose poem.

Send us up to 10 pages of poetry.

We only accept previously uncurated work.  Please refer to this article for a more in-depth understanding of what that means. 

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. We request you drop us a message if your poem(s) get accepted elsewhere, we want to congratulate you!

We like EB Garamond, 13 point font-size, and 1.15 line-spacing. If you are submitting prose poems (which, we repeat, we love) please justify your paragraphs. If you are unable to use our preferred formatting because of technical reasons, that is totally fine.

If we have previously declined your submission, you can submit again the following month.

We are open to translations as long as you have the rights from the author/publisher.

We will respond in 3 days. 

We offer $55 to all our poets. This is per contribution and not per piece. 

✅ For all feedback options, we‘ll first review your package and cover letter to see if  we can adequately work with your style and provide you with the promised editorial feedback. If we feel we might not be able to serve your style and vision best, we will refund you the full feedback fee.

✅ All poems are automatically considered for publication. If we decide to publish any part of your submission, we will refund you the full feedback fee. 

✅ We strive to respond within 6 weeks. Sometimes, it might take a little longer. If it's been more than 9 weeks, we will provide you the feedback and also refund you the full feedback fee. 

➡️ PICK YOUR POISON

1️⃣ Workshop

This feedback style is rooted in the MFA space. Focused on being highly constructive, we will excavate what is primarily working in your poems. This is not to say that we will not offer a critical reading to indicate what is not working and what needs further attention. Both are present in harmony. When compared with the "Merciless" option below, however, the Workshop style can be easier to digest and is recommended for newer poets looking for encouragement to chart a positive path forward in their poetic journey. 

2️⃣ Merciless (No getting mad, please)

Hopefully, the name says it all, but here’s more of a breakdown.
 

The nature of this feedback will not follow the traditional MFA-workshop style. If you have more questions about the differences, then please do reach out to us via email and we’ll be happy to chat.
 

We do want to make it clear that this Editorial Feedback tier is, as “advertised”,  merciless and brutally honest. Please, don‘t get mad at us. We care about poetry. We’ll do our best to help you improve yours.

➡️ PICK YOUR TIER

Please select which tier of editorial feedback you’d like to receive below. The cost ranges from $10-$150. Everything we make from offering our editorial services goes right back into running ONLY POEMS.

We prefer 13-point EB Garamond and 1.15 line spacing. If you are submitting prose poems (which, we repeat, we love) please justify your paragraphs. If you are unable to use our preferred formatting because of technical reasons, that is totally fine.

➡️ THE EDITORS

The people reviewing your work will be either Founding Editor Shannan Mann or Editor-in-Chief Karan Kapoor, depending on whose sensibility best matches your poetry.
 

Here are our bios:

Shannan Mann has been awarded or placed for the Palette Love & Eros Prize, Rattle Poetry Prize, Auburn Witness Prize, Foster Poetry Prize, Peatsmoke Summer Contest and Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize among others. Her poems appear in Poetry Daily, Black Warrior Review, Poet Lore, Gulf Coast, The Literary Review of Canada, EPOCH, december, & elsewhere. She is the Poet Laureate’s pick for Exile. Her essays appear in Tolka Journal & Going Down Swinging and have been awarded the Alta Lind Cook Prize and the Irene Adler Essay Prize. She also translates Sanskrit poetry. Having worked as an editor and educator for nearly a decade, she now raises her baby, studies, writes, and runs this magazine.
 

Karan Kapoor is an MFA candidate at Virginia Tech. Originally from New Delhi, they have many years of experience in publishing, design, and editing. A finalist for the Diode, Tusculum Review, and Iron Horse Literary Review chapbook prizes, their poems appear in AGNI, Shenandoah, Colorado Review, Cincinnati Review, North American Review, The Margins, Rattle and elsewhere. Their poetry has been honored with the Red Wheelbarrow Prize, James Hearst Poetry Prize, and Bellevue Literary Review Poetry Prize, and more. Their fiction appears in JOYLAND and the other side of hope, and translations in The Offing and The Los Angeles Review.

We look forward to working with you!