How to Submit Poetry to Literary Magazines
Quick answer: How to submit poetry to literary magazines: research journals that fit your work, follow guidelines exactly, send 3 to 5 poems with a brief cover letter.
Submitting poetry to literary magazines follows a standard routine: research journals whose taste fits your work, read their submission guidelines carefully, send three to five poems in the requested format with a brief cover letter, and track everything while you wait one to six months for a reply. Nearly all submissions now go through online portals or email rather than post.
The process is simple; doing it well is a discipline. Editors report that a large share of submissions fail on basics, wrong poem count, ignored formatting, work wildly unsuited to the magazine, before quality even enters the question. Getting the mechanics right does not make weak poems publishable, but it stops strong poems dying of admin.
Research: the step everyone skips
Every magazine has a sensibility, and matching it is half the game. Read at least a few poems from recent issues, most journals post samples free, and ask honestly whether your work belongs in that company. Databases like Chill Subs, Duotrope, and the Poets & Writers listings let you filter by style, response time, payment, and acceptance rate.
Build a longlist of ten to fifteen magazines in tiers: two or three ambitious names, a middle band of solid journals, and a few newer magazines actively seeking work. Submitting only to famous quarterlies is how beginners collect two years of silence.
Preparing the submission
Follow the guidelines as if they were a legal document, because functionally they are. Typical requests: three to five poems in one document, a standard serif font, single spacing with a blank line between stanzas, no identifying details if judging is anonymous. Start each poem on a new page and never send drafts; edit first, submit second.
The cover letter should be three or four sentences: greeting, titles of the poems, two lines of biography with a credit or two if you have them, thanks. No summary of the poems, no explanation of what they mean, no apology for being unknown; every editor started reading unknowns on purpose.
Tracking, waiting, and responding
Keep a spreadsheet or use a tracking tool: magazine, poems sent, date, response due, simultaneous or not. Most journals allow simultaneous submissions, so keep several batches circulating and withdraw poems promptly when one is accepted. Response times run from a fortnight to six months; query politely only after the stated window passes.
Read rejections for signal. A form 'no' means nothing about you. A personal note, 'send more', 'this one nearly made it', is an active invitation, and editors extend those rarely; respond within a few months with your best new work. Meanwhile, contests run in parallel to all of this, and the scored feedback that some, like Writory's monthly one, return with results is a useful compass for which poems to send out next.
What poets can take from this
- Read a magazine before submitting to it, every time, no exceptions.
- Keep three tiers of target journals and submit across all of them.
- Send your poems in the exact format the guidelines request.
- Log every submission and set reminders for response windows.
- Treat any personal rejection as an invitation and act on it quickly.
- Keep fifteen or more poems in circulation once you have the material.
Try it yourself
Write a poem about waiting for an answer, from an editor, a doctor, a lover, in which the waiting changes the waiter more than the answer could. Then send it somewhere.
Questions
How many poems should I submit to a magazine?
Three to five is the standard batch unless guidelines say otherwise. Send your strongest, and make the batch varied enough that different editors' tastes have something to catch on.
How long do literary magazines take to respond?
Anywhere from two weeks to six months; three months is a common average. Guidelines usually state the expected window, and querying is acceptable once it has clearly passed.
Can I submit the same poems to multiple magazines at once?
Usually yes; most journals accept simultaneous submissions provided you withdraw a poem immediately when it is accepted elsewhere. A minority require exclusivity and say so in their guidelines.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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