Couplet is open for submissions February 1-29, 2024.
What we’re looking for:
At Couplet Poetry, we publish two poems per author (a couplet). Send us poems that pair, rhyme (literally or figuratively), complement, hold hands, translate, juxtapose, or otherwise can’t live without each other. Our aesthetic is open (send us your experimental work, your formal work, your something in-between work), but we skew toward the jarring, the odd, the weird, the macabre, the political, the punk, the intersectional, the depressed, the fierce, the feminist and/or the misbehaved. Work by BIPOC writers, queer writers, trans writers, women writers, disabled writers and writers from other marginalized backgrounds is welcomed and encouraged.
How to submit:
Issue 6 will be open for submissions during the month of February, 2024.
We are excited to offer NO FEE submissions via Submittable for Issues 4 and beyond. Please follow the link below to submit your work.
Guidelines:
- Submit ONLY two poems. Our acceptances of submissions are all or nothing; we will either say yes to both poems, or no to both poems.
- Include a short cover letter/bio in the Submissions form on Submittable.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine, but do know that we read quickly and generally give answers within two months of the close of our submission window. Notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. It will mean that you need to withdraw the entire submission, as we only publish pairs of poems. Due to the volume of submissions, you will not be allowed to resubmit new work in the case of a withdrawal.
- All work submitted must be previously unpublished, including on personal blogs and websites.
- No AI assisted or generated submissions will be considered.
- Please limit to one submission per submission period. This includes if your work is accepted elsewhere, or if you change your mind about what you’ve submitted, or if you’ve made edits after submitting. Authors who submit more than one submission per period will not be considered for publication.
- We love reading work by poets we’ve previously published, but please wait the length of one issue before resubmitting (e.g. if you were published in Issue 2, wait until Issue 4’s open period to resubmit).
- We have in the past published visual poems, poems written as pairs by two separate authors, ekphrastic collaborations between poets and visual artists, and translations, and are open to considering these and other interpretations of the “couplet.”
- Upon agreement to publish, Couplet receives first serial/publication rights; all copyrights revert to author upon publication. At this time, we cannot offer payment, but we will promote your work widely and will treat it with respect and care.
