Masthead
Quick answer: A masthead is the page in a magazine or journal listing its editors and staff. Learn what a poetry masthead tells you and how to use it before submitting.
A masthead is the page in a magazine or journal that names the people who run it: the editor in chief, the section editors, the readers, and often the founders, interns and advisory board. In a print journal it usually sits within the first few pages; online it tends to live under a link labelled Masthead, About or Our Team. The word comes from newspaper publishing, where a paper's title and staff details were printed in a fixed block, and literary magazines carried the habit over.
For a submitting poet the masthead is quietly useful. It tells you who will actually read your work, how large the editorial team is, and whether the poetry editor is someone whose own writing and taste you can research. Editors move between journals constantly, and a masthead is the most reliable public record of who is reading for whom right now.
What a Masthead Tells You
Read a masthead the way you would read a cast list. The names carry real information about a journal's size, stability and taste, and five minutes spent here saves months of misdirected submissions.
How to Use It Before You Submit
Start with the poetry editor's own publications. Taste leaks: an editor who writes spare, image-led free verse will rarely fall for ornate rhymed quatrains, however good they are. Read a poem or two they have written and a few they have chosen for recent issues, then judge honestly whether your work belongs in that company.
The masthead also settles the small etiquette question of cover letters. If a poetry editor is named, address them by name, spelled correctly. If the journal reads as a collective, a plain greeting to the poetry team is safer than guessing.
Getting Your Own Name on One
Many journals recruit volunteer readers once or twice a year, usually announced on their websites or social accounts. Reading slush is the fastest education available in why poems get declined: you watch strong openings sag by line six, and you learn how rarely a poem survives a vague title. A masthead credit is service experience rather than a publication credit, but it belongs in a longer bio and it builds relationships that outlast any single acceptance.
What poets can take from this
- Check when the masthead was last updated; a recent change of poetry editor makes older acceptances a poor guide to current taste.
- Address your cover letter to the named poetry editor, or use the greeting the submission guidelines suggest.
- Read at least one poem written by the editor and two they have published before you submit.
- Treat a very small masthead as a warning about response times, and wait longer before querying.
- Apply for a volunteer reader role at a journal you admire; a season of slush reading will change how you revise.
Try it yourself
Find the masthead of a journal you admire, read one poem its poetry editor wrote and one they chose, then draft a new poem you honestly believe that specific reader would stop on. Afterwards, write three sentences on what you changed because a real person was in mind.
Questions
What is the difference between a masthead and a colophon?
A masthead lists the people who run a publication, while a colophon describes how the object itself was made: the typeface, paper and printer. People on one page, production details on the other.
Does being listed on a masthead count as a publication credit?
No. It is a service credit, and it belongs in your bio as editorial experience rather than in a list of places your poems have appeared. Editors still respect it, because it shows you understand how journals work.
Why do some journals not publish a masthead at all?
Some prefer to read and be read anonymously, and some collectives simply decline to rank themselves into titles. In that case, judge the journal by the poems in its recent issues instead.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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