2026 Single Poem Contest

Submit one previously unpublished poem of any length, style, or form. You can submit up to 10 times, with one poem per submission. One winner receives $250,
a featured publication in a print issue, a uniquely designed physical and digital broadside of their poem, publicity on our social media channels, and an optional interview. Finalists receive publication and publicity on our social media channels and are considered for interviews and reviews.


Deadline
August 1, 2026


Judge 










Sarah Ghazal Ali 
is a Pakistani American writer and editor. She is the author of the poetry collection Theophanies (Alice James Books, 2024), winner of the GLCA New Writers Award, California Book Award, and Julie Suk Award, and a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, among others. A finalist for a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship, she has been awarded The Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, and her poems have appeared in journals and outlets including The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, and the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series. Sarah is a Stadler and Kundiman fellow, the poetry editor for West Branch, and an Assistant Professor of English at Macalester College. She lives and teaches in Saint Paul, Minnesota.



2025 Winner

The Funerary Pin by A. Jenson, chosen by poet Blas Falconer

See Issue 10 for all finalists

2024 Winner

Owing by Jesslyn Whittell

2024 Finalists

Palliative Care by Michael Mark

How I Moved to Nevada by Kathy Nelson





2026 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest

Ekphrastic poetry is inspired by works of art. Submit a poem inspired by, in conversation with, critiquing, or responding to any poem we have published in any past issue. You might provide a new perspective, interpretation, or continuation of the other writer's themes, imagery, or language. One winner receives $200, a featured publication in a print issue, a uniquely designed physical and digital broadside of their poem, publicity on our social media channels, free contributor copies, and an optional interview.


Deadline
June 1, 2026

See full guidelines on Submittable.





2026 Nonfiction Writing Contest

Submit nonfiction—critical, creative, experimental, or cross-genre—that fits the vibe of our journal (we often favor writing about literature, art, culture, politics, ecology, love, the body, feminism, and queer identity). We welcome braided essays, reviews, art writing, cultural critique, lyric essays, and everything in between. What we are NOT looking for: fiction stories, overly academic writing, rants, morality tales, purely family-oriented memoirs, or anything using AI. Your work should be around 1,000 to 3,000 words and can include any art, visuals, and audio you like (as long as we can publish it). 
 
Judge  
 









 
Marco Wilkinson
is a writer and translator. His lyric memoir, "MADDER: A Memoir in Weeds," was published by Coffee House Press. His translation of "Divine Invention, or The Celebration of Love" by Franco-Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco was published as a chapbook by Albion Books. His work can be found in Kenyon Review, DIAGRAM, Seneca Review, Ecotone, ASSAY: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Breadloaf Environmental Writers' Conference, the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Montalvo Arts, Craigarden, the Hemera Foundation, and the Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology. He is an Assistant Professor in the Literature Department at UC San Diego.


Deadline
June 1, 2026

See full guidelines on Submittable.