What Counts as a Previously Published Poem?
Quick answer: What counts as a previously published poem? Any poem made publicly available: journals, anthologies, blogs, and usually public social media posts all count.
A poem counts as previously published if it has been made available to the public in any medium: printed in a journal or anthology, posted on a website or blog, self-published in a book, and, under most editors' definitions, shared on a public social media account. The test is public availability, not whether anyone paid for it or read it.
The frustrating part is that the definition belongs to whoever is asking. Each magazine and contest sets its own line, and they genuinely differ on the grey cases: private workshops, personal newsletters, deleted posts. When guidelines do not specify, the safe assumption is the strict one, and the safer move still is to email and ask.
Clearly published, clearly not
Uncontroversially published: literary magazines print or online, anthologies, your own collection or chapbook however small the press, personal blogs and websites, and contest winners' pages. Uncontroversially unpublished: poems in your drawer, poems shared privately by email, entries to contests that did not place and were never posted, and work circulated inside a closed, invitation-only workshop.
The logic behind the line is first publication rights. Journals want to debut work; a poem the public could already have read has lost its debut, no matter how few people actually read it.
The grey zone, case by case
Public social media posts: most editors count them as publication, so a poem posted to a public Instagram or X account is spent for many markets. Deleting the post afterwards does not reliably reset its status, and honesty in the cover letter is required either way. Private or friends-only posts are treated more leniently by some journals, strictly by others.
Open-mic readings and spoken performances generally do not count, though a video of the reading posted publicly usually does. Newsletters are split: a personal newsletter to two hundred subscribers is publication to some editors and not to others. Workshop platforms with public visibility, forums, and comment threads tend to count. When your poem's history touches any of these, disclose it and let the editor decide.
Why contests care and what it means for you
Contests requiring unpublished work are protecting the prize's value: the win often includes first publication, and judges also want a level field where nobody's poem arrives with an audience attached. Entering published work where rules forbid it leads to disqualification, sometimes after the prize is announced, which is far worse.
The practical discipline is simple: keep your strongest new poems offline until they have finished their submission life. Post generously from your published and retired work instead. A poem that wins somewhere, in Writory's monthly contest or anywhere else, then becomes published, so sequence your ambitions for each poem before you release it anywhere.
What poets can take from this
- Keep new poems off public feeds until their submission life is over.
- Record every place each poem has appeared, including your own blog.
- When a poem's history is grey, disclose it in the cover letter and let the editor rule.
- Remember that deleting a public post does not reliably make a poem unpublished.
- Save social media for published, retired, or purpose-written poems.
Try it yourself
Write a poem about something that cannot be taken back once released: a rumour, a scent, a bird from a cage. Do not mention publishing at all, and let the metaphor do the work.
Questions
Does posting a poem on Instagram count as publishing it?
For most journals and contests, yes, a public post counts as prior publication. A private account is a grey area that varies by editor. If you plan to submit the poem, keep it offline.
If I delete a poem from my blog, is it unpublished again?
Generally no. Most editors hold that publication is an event, not a state; once public, always previously published. A few markets are lenient, but you must disclose the history either way.
Can I submit a poem that lost a contest?
Yes. Non-winning contest entries are not published unless the organiser posted them somewhere public, which is rare. Losing poems return to your pool fully eligible.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
Enter a Writory poetry contest
Enter the September contest and have your own poem read and scored. That first entry makes you a Writorian.