Welcome to The Poetry Society submissions page on Submittable
Here, you can submit poems to The Poetry Review magazine, The Poetry Society's quarterly journal first published in 1912. We welcome submissions of unpublished poems and translations of poems, and have a long-standing tradition of publishing new and upcoming, as well as established, poets. All submissions are read by the editor and considered on an equal basis.
You can also enter a range of Poetry Society competitions, including our quarterly Poetry News competitions. Note, these may be open only to Members of the Society or our regional Stanza groups. Submissions via Submittable are FREE to Poetry Society Members – join here.
The Free Verse Prize is a poetry competition in support of Free Verse: the Poetry Book and Magazine Fair.
We invite people to submit new poems on any theme with the chance for the winning poem to feature at one of the key events of the poetry calendar. Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair celebrates the vitality of poetry in the UK – it's a day of conversation and shopping, an unrivalled opportunity to browse the very best in contemporary poetry and to meet publishers, literary organisations, poets and poetry readers. This year's Free Verse takes place on Saturday 26 April 2025 at St Columba, Pont St., London.
The winner of the competition will receive £500, plus publication in Poetry News. The winning poem will also be printed in the official 2025 Free Verse programme, distributed to all attendees and publishers at the Fair.
This year's judge is poet and former This year's judge, Ali Lewis, is a writer and editor. He received an Eric Gregory Award for his pamphlet, Hotel (Verve, 2020), and his poems and short stories have appeared in the London Magazine, the TLS, Poetry Review and the New Statesman, as well as in Poetry London, where he was Associate Editor. He frequently collaborates with composers and settings of his work have featured on Radio Three and Radio France Musique. He holds a PhD from Durham University. His first collection, Absence, is published by Cheerio.
Guidelines
- The competition opens 8 January 2025 and the deadline for entries is midnight on 7 March 2025.
- Poems should be a maximum of 40 lines, including title and blank lines / stanza breaks. (This is to ensure the winning poem fits on the Free Verse programme)
- Poems may be on any theme. They must be the entrant’s original work, and should be previously unpublished. Entries must be written in English.
- You may submit up to eight poems. All poems should be in the same document, on separate pages. Please do not include your name anywhere on the poem document.
- Entries cost £5 for the first poem, and £4 for all subsequent poems.
- Poets may be based anywhere in the world. There is no age limit, but the competition is aimed at adult writers.
- Postal entries are not accepted. All entries must be via The Poetry Society’s Submittable.
- No current employee or Trustee of The Poetry Society is eligible to enter.
- The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, the author of the winning poem, by entering the competition, grants The Poetry Society the right in perpetuity to publish and/or broadcast their poem. Use of the poems elsewhere for six months after 26 April 2025 is subject to permission from The Poetry Society.
Welcome to the latest Poetry News Members' Poems Competition. Every quarter, we invite Members to submit poems on a theme set by our judge, a professional poet. The six best are published in Poetry News and on our dedicated Members' poems webpage.
Our next members’ poems competition will be on the theme of ‘Stone’, proposed by our judge Jane Clarke who was inspired by the limestone landscape of the Burren in County Clare. Jane is the author of three poetry collections, The River (2015), When the Tree Falls (2019) and A Change in the Air (2023, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T.S. Eliot Prize).
- The deadline for entries is 10 am, Monday 3 February 2025; poems must be unpublished as of end of March 2025.
- Please send no more than two poems (each a maximum of forty lines); any additional or overlength submissions will be disregarded. All poems must be unpublished. Please only add your membership number to your poem files, not your name and address.
- Note, this competition is ONLY for Members of The Poetry Society; if you're not a member, we're sorry to say your entry cannot be considered as our quarterly competitions are a benefit of membership. To find out about how you can join, please visit our website.
The Poetry Review, founded in 1912, is the magazine of the Poetry Society, UK, and has a long-standing policy of publishing the very best work by new and established poets. All submissions are read by the editor and considered on an equal basis. Unfortunately, because of the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot offer any individual criticism. Our aim is to accept or reject work within three months. Please read, and follow, the submission guidelines below, in order to facilitate our response.
Submission guidelines (for all writers)
- Submit a maximum of six poems, all in the same document, with page breaks between them. Only one document is allowed per submission.
- Please note when completing your address that you can begin typing the country name to find it, rather than scrolling down to find United Kingdom or United States for example.
- The 'cover letter' box below allows for any brief additional notes you feel relevant, but it is not essential.
- You may submit new poems only when you have a received a decision about your last submission.
- Please only send unpublished work.
- We do not consider simultaneous submissions (work that is being considered elsewhere).
- If you need to withdraw individual poems from consideration, please click on the title of your submission; click on the "Activity" tab; and leave a note detailing which poem(s) should be withdrawn. Please only use the "Withdraw" function if you intend to remove all poems from consideration.
Use this form if you are a Member of The Poetry Society (submissions are FREE to Members). If you are NOT a Poetry Society Member please use this form. To join, please visit our website.
The Poetry Review, founded in 1912, is the magazine of the Poetry Society, UK, and has a long-standing policy of publishing the very best work by new, up and coming poets, and established poets. All submissions are read by the editor and considered on an equal basis. Unfortunately, due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot offer any individual criticism. Our aim is to accept or reject work within three months – but please read, and follow, the submission guidelines below, in order to facilitate our response.
Please note, we make a small charge for submissions via Submittable to non-members of The Poetry Society, equivalent to the cost of print and postage. This helps us to run an efficient system that provides the best service to submitters. It is possible to send poems without charge via post – see The Poetry Society website.
Submission guidelines (for all writers)
- Submit a maximum of six poems, all in the same document, with page breaks between them. Only one document is allowed per submission.
- Please note when completing your address that you can begin typing the country name to find it, rather than scrolling down to find United Kingdom or United States for example.
- The 'cover letter' box below allows for any brief additional notes you feel relevant, but it is not essential.
- You may submit new poems only when you have a received a decision about your last submission.
- Please only send unpublished work.
- We do not consider simultaneous submissions (work that is being considered elsewhere).
- If you need to withdraw individual poems from consideration, please click on the title of your submission; click on the "Activity" tab; and leave a note detailing which poem(s) should be withdrawn. Please only use the "Withdraw" function if you intend to remove all poems from consideratio
Use this form if you are NOT a Poetry Society Member. Submissions are FREE to members of The Poetry Society. To join, please visit our website.