GUIDELINES

 

 

Public School Poetry publishes two online issues each year: a Back-to-School Issue in September, and a Spring Break Issue in April. Please note that while we invoke public school tropes for the identity of this journal, we are not asking for school-specific poems or student-specific submitters. Please read the guidelines below and then send us work you’re passionate to share with us!

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We have two reading periods each year:

 

October 15th - December 1st 

 

April 15th -  June 1st

 

Submit 4-6 unpublished poems in one file that does not exceed ten pages to our Submittable account. When you get to Submittable, you will also be asked to fill out a brief enrollment form instead of a letter. The enrollment form is primarily our checkpoint that you know what we're about and really want to be a part of it.

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Poets selected will be published under the condition that they write “a five-paragraph essay” (300-600'ish words) on a fellow contributor’s poem packet for the issue. Contributors are randomly and anonymously assigned their packet by the Public School Poetry Vice Principals shortly after being accepted to the issue. This exchange is a vital part of our mission to democratize craft talk and poetry engagement.

 

We ask that these "five-paragraph essays" engage explicitly with the poems in order to guide our readers back to them with renewed/different understanding. We encourage contributors to consider the “five-paragraph essay” as a structure to play with/use in much the same way you might approach a sonnet or an ekphrasis. Essays can be as lyrical or analytical as you like as long as there’s five parts/units/paragraphs. Contributors are not obligated to address every poem and we won’t edit your essay or ask for revisions as long as it does this work and follows our school spirit guidelines:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We only have room to publish a handful of writers. If your pieces aren’t selected, please know we still read them with care and are cheering you on from the bleachers. If your pieces are selected, please note that you are agreeing to give Public School Poetry first serial publication rights. After publication, all rights revert back to you, the author.

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