POETRY BIRMINGHAM
Literary Journal

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Our submissions are currently closed. Please do not send postal submissions at this time.

Please read our submission guidelines as carefully as you would like us to read your work.   

1.     If an online submission window is open: submit up to three poems using this form as a single Word document of no more than five pages—Word is our preference for tracking editorial changes. Using the form vastly reduces our administration burden so please do not send any poems via email unless specifically requested to do so.

2. If you cannot use the online form for any reason, you may post your submission to us at any time. Our address is Poetry Birmingham, PO Box 18136, Smethwick, B67 9HA. When sending a postal submission, you may submit up to six poems. Please include your email address for a response and do keep copies of your work since we do not return, nor retain, submissions.

3.     For prose about poetry: send a proposal of up to 150 words to naush @poetrybirmingham .com, along with a Word document containing a 500-word extract of your prose writing and a writer’s CV. If the piece you’re pitching is already written in full, do send the whole thing. We welcome essays—both creative-critical or personal—reviews, reportage, interviews, and are open to more experimental forms. We seek honest, informed, interesting writing.

4.     Formatting: work should be typed in 11pt Baskerville. If you don’t have a version Baskerville, any serif font will do (e.g. Garamond or Times). Each poem should be titled and separated from the next by a page break. The header should contain your name and the footer should contain page numbers. The filename must be your name as you wish it to appear in print.

5.     Your submission file must include a cover letter addressed to the editor (Naush Sabah) and a short biography of up to 150 words written in the third person. Please also include a condensed biography of no more than one sentence, in the style of the journal. For example: ‘Fulana Fulani lives in Birmingham and her latest collection is Lovely Book (SmallPress, 2021).’

6.     We use Chicago Notes and Bibliography for style and referencing, with single quotes, punctuation outside marks for quotations, and double quotes for quotations within quotations.

7.     We are looking for previously unpublished work that is original, well-crafted, intriguing, and demonstrates a sensitivity to lyric. We are also interested in engaging visual, experimental, constrained, collaborative, mixed media, or hybrid work. We consider longer poems and sequences that fit within our five-page limit.

8.     We welcome international submissions, however, all submissions must be primarily in English. We’re particularly keen on translation, which should include original language text alongside and have all relevant permissions from the original writer.

9.     We welcome drawings, illustrations, other visual art, and photography, whether alongside or independent of poetry submissions. However, do bear in mind that we do not print in colour, so work would need to be suitable for our black-and-white print journal.

10.     We will not enter into discussion regarding work that is not accepted for publication but we wish you all the best in placing it elsewhere. If you are keen for editorial feedback, we offer a paid critique service here.

11.     By submitting to Poetry Birmingham, you agree to grant us first serial rights and a 3-month period of exclusivity, after which we ask that you credit Poetry Birmingham as the first publisher if the piece is later published elsewhere. Upon publication, we retain the right to publish your submission in any subsequent digital & print issues or anthologies and retain non-exclusive electronic archival rights.

12.     We do not wish to hold up other possibilities of publication for your work while we consider it and therefore encourage simultaneous submissions so long as you immediately withdraw your work from consideration if it is accepted elsewhere. We endeavour to respond to your submission within three months of the end of our submission window but we are human so if you have not heard back from us in that timeframe, and really cannot bear to wait, you can email hirsi @poetrybirmingham.com. Do check your spam folder before doing so.

13.     When possible, we offer a free critique service for a previously unpublished (we mean pamphlets and books), working-class poet from a Black or Asian background. This is in the spirit of ‘paying it forward’ and supporting the development of poets who—like the team that created this journal—are underrepresented in publishing. Recipients are selected on a first-come-first-served basis and will be notified with submission outcome.

14.     We are delighted to have ACE support for the production of the journal which means in 2022 we can provide a fee of £25 per page of poetry and a complimentary contributor copy to writers whose work is published. All other sales income goes back into the production of the journal, so please purchase a copy or subscribe and help us to continue publishing.