Submissions are now open until March 31, 2026, for the spring issue, which will be released on April 15, 2026.
The Literary Nest is a journal where no money changes hands. I will never charge a fee to submit poems, even for future contests. What that means is that there will be no cash prizes and no compensation for the included poems. I want this space to be open, inviting, and enjoyable. “A Clean Well-Lighted Space,” if you will.
I will continue to include all forms of poetry, except those that require special spacing. In the future, if I find a volunteer to put up these poems, I will consider them. We need more metrical poetry.
We will consider poems only from people over 18 years of age.
Submit up to three poems in the body of the email to theliterarynest(at)gmail.com. The poem should not have any special formatting. Poems can be metrical, formal, free-verse, or prose poems. By submitting to The Literary Nest, you confirm that the poem is your original creation and that you have not employed AI or plagiarized any work. Please wait until you hear from us before submitting again. The response time is between 2 weeks and 3 months. Feel free to attach a suitable image to your poem. If you do submit the image, please confirm that you have legal rights to that image.
Bio: Please send a short (100 words or fewer) written in third person, at the end of the last poem. I do need a bio to publish the poem(s). Having it at the end lets me read the poems blindly. Also, beginning from the spring issue, I reserve the right to revise the bio for readability.
The Literary Nest 