Please Note: The BPJ has paused submissions this summer so that we can give thoughtful time to considering, editing, and publishing the work we have received. This season has brought us an unprecedented volume of extraordinary submissions. We are entirely grateful for writers' continued faith in language as both fuel and balm, and for their trust in the BPJ as a potential home for their poems. We will work to honor that trust during the summer months. Thank you for your patience. We look forward to seeing your work during our Winter Open Reading Period (opens January 1, 2023).
We read regular submissions during two open reading periods:
We’re open to a wide range of forms and styles in contemporary poetry. We’re always watching for new poets, quickened language, and work that offers a fresh purchase on the political or social landscape.
The editors read every poem that comes in over the transom. We respond to manuscripts we know aren't for us as soon as we've read them. The rest we circulate among the editorial board members and continue to winnow. At face-to-face, long-weekend-long meetings, we read aloud those poems in which we have strong interest and collaborate to choose an issue from among them.
Note about open reading periods: We can receive 800 fee-free submissions per month of our open reading periods. If we reach 800 during any month, submissions will close until the next month of the reading period begins; when 800 is reached in the final month of an open reading period, regular submissions will close until our next open reading period.
Please Note: The BPJ has paused submissions this summer so that we can give thoughtful time to considering, editing, and publishing the work we have received. This season has brought us an unprecedented volume of extraordinary submissions. We are entirely grateful for writers' continued faith in language as both fuel and balm, and for their trust in the BPJ as a potential home for their poems. We will work to honor that trust during the summer months. Thank you for your patience. We look forward to seeing your work during our Winter Open Reading Period (opens January 1, 2023).
We read regular submissions during two open reading periods:
We’re open to a wide range of forms and styles in contemporary poetry. We’re always watching for new poets, quickened language, and work that offers a fresh purchase on the political or social landscape.
The editors read every poem that comes in over the transom. We respond to manuscripts we know aren't for us as soon as we've read them. The rest we circulate among the editorial board members and continue to winnow. At face-to-face, long-weekend-long meetings, we read aloud those poems in which we have strong interest and collaborate to choose an issue from among them.
Note about open reading periods: We can receive 800 fee-free submissions per month of our open reading periods. If we reach 800 during any month, submissions will close until the next month of the reading period begins; when 800 is reached in the final month of an open reading period, regular submissions will close until our next open reading period.