Submission Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines for all poetry submissions

(Updated August 18, 2021)

  • TIMING: Submit your poetry by the 15th of each month, year-round.

  • STYLE: Please send us work that’s at least 12 lines of text for poetry and we prefer that you do not repeat the title as the first line (Both will aid Search Engine Optimization). Any literary style of poetry is appreciated, whether free verse or form poetry (sing-songy stuff will not be published), or prose poetry following the Robert Bly school of style (a prose poem is a poem without line breaks, not simply a piece of prose with some poetic swaths).

  • THEMES: In addition to the overall aesthetics of the magazine, your work may also satisfy monthly themes (optional).

  • LANGUAGE: Please use American English spelling, punctuation, grammar whenever possible; use one space after a period.

  • BIO: Include a third-person literary bio (150 words max). Do not use all-caps or underlining, rather italicize venues and titles of collections, but not book publishers. You may include your social media and website URLs, but avoid putting your email in the bio.

  • FORMAT: Send 2 to 5 unpublished* poems, cover letter** with bio in ONE Word document, each poem beginning on its own page. Use an easy-on-the-eyes font, such as Garamond or Times New Roman, size 12.  {* “unpublished” means not ever accessible to the general public, including social media and audi0, unless solicited or approved; password-protected electronic workshops are excluded. ** A comment about some of our previously published poetry would be welcomed.}

  • SECURITY: To avoid your receiving spam, do not include live links in the bio, phone numbers, or email addresses in your bio.

  • SUBMIT: Via e-mail, put [ADR Poetry Submission] in the subject line and send the work to me, the poetry editor (to my Gmail account; the left-hand side of the “at” symbol is jcmannone).

  • ARTWORK:  Optional. You may submit your artwork to complement your poem(s), suggest another copyright-free work, or include one whose permission you have to use along with the citation. 300 dpi jpg attachments are preferred.

  • WE WILL NOT PUBLISH

    • Profanity or hate speech

    • Political endorsements

    • Previously published poems

    • Anonymous submissions