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Call for Poetry Submissions

We enjoy publishing poetry so much here at Philly Poetry Chapbook Review that we’ve decided to accept and publish even more in 2025! If you have original poetry to submit, please see the guidelines below. We will also begin featuring single poem excerpts from full-length collections the way we do with chapbooks. A note about those submissions is below.

Original Poetry

Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is starting to publish original poetry in 2025, and our first call for submissions is from November 1 to December 15, 2024. We’re looking for serious poetry that has something important to say. This can mean poems about topics important to you, poems telling us about who you are or what you think, or an unusual creative style. This doesn’t mean that poems have to be serious as in dealing with weighty subjects, but avoid tired forms with pretty words about trivial things. The content of a poem written in metered verse or Asian short forms needs to be truly impressive to be accepted.

A small honorarium ($10) will be paid for first serial and archival rights. All original poetry will be considered for Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations at the end of the year. Featured poets are expected to be published on a rolling basis with at least one new poet every two weeks.

There is no fee to submit, but please read and follow the guidelines below:

  • Include up to five (5) poems in a .doc or .docx file with page breaks or three blank lines between poems. One entry per poet and a maximum of thirty (30) non-space lines per poem.
  • On the first line in bold, please include your Name, Mailing Address, Email Address, and Phone Number. At this time, we’re only accepting submissions from poets residing in the United States or Canada.
  • Send an email with the file attached to poetry @ phillychapbookreview.org with the subject line, “Original Poetry:” followed by your name.
  • A cover letter is optional, but it can’t hurt. We’ll be judging your poetry, but if it’s a close call we might let our feelings decide. The cover letter should be in the body of your email.
  • Only literary poetry, please. This doesn’t mean that poems can’t fall into a genre, but if they do, they should be meaningful to serious poetry readers.
  • Any entries that denigrate another person on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual preference, or disability will be discarded. We are a small publication run by a disabled person who loves the great variety of voices in poetry.
  • Poems may not be previously published in a periodical. (We define periodicals as magazines, websites, blogs, or social media feeds with more than 500 followers.)
  • Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please notify immediately if a submitted poem is no longer available.
  • Please be sure to let us know if a poem’s spacing/placement is nonstandard and important. This isn’t disqualifying, but we want to make sure we read it properly.

Full-length Excerpts

As of January 2025, we will begin featuring poems from new or forthcoming full-length collections. The procedure for submitting these can be done by following the Chapbook Submissions guidelines and sending a digital copy or done as shown above if you don’t have the digital proof. Up to five poems can be recommended for consideration.
Poems can be previously published, but we will be favoring unpublished poetry for award nomination eligibility. Collections must be forthcoming or published within the previous twelve months.


Contents

Call for Poetry Submissions

PCR is calling for submissions of original poetry for the first time between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15. We’re also opening to submissions of poem excerpts from full-length collections. Read this post for details!