Cover Letter
Quick answer: A cover letter is the brief note accompanying a poetry submission. Learn what editors want in a cover letter, what to leave out, and a format that works.
A cover letter, in poetry submission, is the brief professional note that accompanies your poems, telling the editor who you are, what you have sent, and a line or two of publication history. Brief is the operative word. A good poetry cover letter runs three to six sentences, and its highest function is to get out of the way of the poems. Editors decide on the work, not the letter, but a graceless letter can still sour the reading.
New poets often agonise over cover letters far beyond their actual weight. The anxiety is understandable, since the letter is the only place you speak in your own voice rather than the poem's, but the fix is simple: learn the standard format once, reuse it forever, and spend the saved worry on revision.
What Goes In
Address the editor by name if the masthead gives one. State what you are submitting: the number of poems and, if useful, their titles. Add two or three sentences of bio, your strongest credits or, lacking credits, a plain human sentence about who you are. Thank them for reading. That is the whole machine.
A serviceable original example: 'Dear Ms Okafor, please consider these four poems for Riverlight. My work has appeared in two small journals, and I placed in a monthly international contest last year. I teach primary school in Leeds. Thank you for your time and for the magazine, which I have read since issue nine.' Notice the last clause: genuine familiarity with the venue is the only flourish editors consistently enjoy.
What to Leave Out
Do not explain or summarise the poems; they must speak alone. Do not apologise for inexperience, list every publication back to the school magazine, mention how long you have written, promise the editor they will love the work, or include a photograph. Never mention that other magazines rejected the batch. Length is the master sin: a page-long letter suggests the poet does not know the conventions, and editors read conventions as a proxy for professionalism.
If you have no credits at all, say nothing about credits. 'This would be my first publication' is honest and fine, but silence is fine too. Editors were all unpublished once.
Special Cases
Contests often want no cover letter at all, especially when judging is anonymous, since identifying details can disqualify an entry. Book and pamphlet submissions ask more of the letter: a short description of the manuscript's shape and themes becomes appropriate at that scale. As always, the venue's guidelines outrank any general advice, including this page.
What poets can take from this
- Keep it under six sentences and one screen.
- Use the editor's name when the masthead provides it, and spell it correctly.
- List at most three recent credits; curation reads as confidence.
- Mention one true thing you liked in a recent issue if you have genuinely read it.
- For anonymous contests, put nothing identifying anywhere the rules forbid it.
- Save your template and update it as credits arrive.
Try it yourself
Draft your reusable four-sentence cover letter, then write a poem that says everything about you the letter is too polite to mention.
Questions
What should a poetry cover letter include?
A greeting using the editor's name where known, what you are submitting, a two or three sentence bio with your best credits, and a thank you. Anything beyond that is usually subtraction by addition.
What if I have no publications to mention?
Simply omit credits and write one plain sentence about yourself. Editors judge the poems, and every published poet once sent a letter with an empty credits line.
Should a cover letter describe the poems?
No. Editors want to meet the poems without instructions. Explaining a poem in the letter suggests you doubt it can explain itself, which is the wrong first impression.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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