Deadline: April 15, 2026

One winning poem will be awarded $1,000, two runners-up will be awarded $100 each, and 3-5 honorable mentions will be selected. All winning poems, honorable mentions, and several finalists are published in the winter issue of SRPR. Moreover, the contest winner will be invited to read his/her winning poem at the annual SRPR Lucia Getsi Poetry Reading Bloomington-Normal, IL.

Finalists are read by 2026 judge Aditi Machado, who also writes an introduction to the winning poem. Recent judges include Aaron Coleman, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Jonah Mixon-Webster, GC Waldrep, Rachel Zucker, Joshua Corey, Juliana Spahr, David Baker, C.S. Giscombe and Jeanne Marie Beaumont. 

Entry Fee: Our entry fee of $25 includes a one-year subscription to SRPR (two issues). If you already subscribe, then we will extend your subscription. International contestants will receive PDF versions of SRPR.

Guidelines

• Please submit up to 3 poems, maximum ten pages in length. Also, please submit all poems in one file, separated by page breaks.
• Entries must be unpublished in any format including print and online. 
• No identifying information should appear anywhere on one copy of your poems.
• Fill in all of your contact information. 
• Fill in the title(s) of the work(s) you are submitting. If you are submitting multiple works, separate titles with commas.

SRPR considers all types of poetry, including translations, multilingual poems, and long poems up to ten pages. Our free reading period runs from September 1 to February 28 each year.

Please send up to five poems. Please include a brief cover letter with the titles of the poems in your submission and a short biography.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted.

Response times may take up to one year.

SRPR publishes new, previously unpublished poetry only and seeks first serial rights in North America (FNASR) for poems selected for publication, which revert to the author upon publication of the issue in which the work appears.

Please note that SRPR has a fixed letter half trim size, which means poems with long lines or complex formatting may not fit well into the journal. While we make every attempt to accommodate formally experimental or long-line poetry in the journal's pages, we may refuse work that would simply not be well served by the journal's size.

If SRPR accepts your work, you will receive a complimentary contributor copy* of the issue in which your work appears, as well as a complimentary 1-year subscription to SRPR. You will also have the opportunity to purchase additional copies at a discount. (*International contributors will receive a complimentary digital copy of the issue in which your work appears, as we are no longer able to ship print copies outside the USA.)

If for any reason you’d like to withdraw a poem, please send us a message through Submittable. Please do not send requests to remove poems from your manuscript through Submittable’s “Open Editing” option.