Poetry

*We are currently only accepting submissions from undergraduate students of Eastern Washington University. Follow us on social media and we will announce if this changes!

Submitting to multiple genres is accepted and encouraged. Please send each genre submission in a separate email. Make sure to follow the correct guidelines for each corresponding genre.

 

Number of Poems & Page Limit

1-6 Poems per submission

Poem submissions should (generally) be no longer than 10 pages.

 

Formatting Guidelines:

Each poem should start on its own, fresh page.

Your entire submission should be formatted in Times New Roman or Arial, 12pt font, and be single-spaced (unless you want your lines to be double-spaced when published).

Page numbers (at the top right corner of the document) are optional, but appreciated for our convenience.

Any indents, stanza breaks, and/or page breaks will be considered intentional.

Your poems should look the way you want them to if/when we decide to publish them (though we can and will edit your work if necessary).

If one stanza ends and another begins on the next page, please put [Stanza Break] in brackets on top of the following page, above the next stanza’s first line--otherwise, we may assume there is no break and that the stanza is meant to continue.

 

Exceptions

If you wish to use alternative fonts, font sizes, or unique forms (such as visual poetry) that require you to break one or more of our rules, please submit your work anyway. Please let us know about this in the body of your email, in this circumstance.

If you have a piece of work you’d like to submit that is longer than 10 pages (a passage from an epic you are writing, for example), then please include that information in your email and send in your submission anyway. Any regular poetry submission that exceeds the page limit will not be read beyond the 10th page.

 

Email Subject

"[First name] [Last name] - [Genre]
example: Oran Bordwell - Poetry

Document Type & File Name

.doc .docx or .pdf file

Titled: [First name] [Last name] [Genre]
example: Oran Bordwell Poetry

Cover letters are not required, but should you choose to share any information about yourself with us, please feel free to do so in the body of your email and ​NOT​ the documents containing your work. This may include your pen name, pronouns, questions about the submission process, etc. You can simply submit the documents and write nothing in the email itself--we will still read and consider your submission.

 

Content Guidelines

We understand that your work may include themes that might be off-putting for some audiences, and that’s okay: if your work contains sensitive topics, please include a content warning in the body of your email. Failing to give our staff any necessary content warning, or submitting any work that is purposefully offensive/discriminatory will result in your entire submission being discarded.

If there are people whose real names are included in your works, please get their permission to publish that work before you send it to us. Alternatively, you may change the names included in your works prior to submitting.

We want this magazine to be as inclusive, diverse, and accessible as possible for all members of Eastern Washington University’s community. For this reason, we will be excited to include works by diverse groups regardless of age, sex, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc., but please know that we will be looking at the quality of the work rather than the biographical information on the author when making decisions on what to publish.

We hope to receive works from authors outside of the Art, English, and Creative Writing majors, so please know that regardless of your experience/background in writing, you are more than welcome to submit to us!

 

Contact Information

We will reach out to the email you submitted your poems with to contact you about the status of your submission. There is no need to give us any additional contact information.

 

Preferred/Pen Names

If you have a preferred first/last name that is not your legal name, please use your preferred name instead of your legal name for both the subject of your email and the titles of your submission documents.

Clarify in the body of your email if you want to use a pen name (a name other than the one you put in the subject of your email) under which you want your work to be published.

 

When in doubt, send in your submission anyway. Please email us any questions or bring up any concerns you may have before submitting. We will do our best to promptly reply. nwbvdmagazine@ewu.edu