Submissions are now open year-round. Although I always stop reading for a given issue 15 days before the issue release. Please check the submission calendar.
Note for the summer issue: It’s wonderful to receive your submissions. At this time, the summer issue is almost full, and we still have 150 submissions to go through. Therefore, we are temporarily closed for submissions. Submissions will open on July 16 for the fall issue. Thank you for your patience,
We appreciate your interest and look forward to your future submission(s).
The Literary Nest is a journal where no money changes hands. I will never charge a fee to submit poems, even for future contests. This means there will be no cash prizes or 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 aged 18 or older. The poems should not be previously published in any format. If your work is published in an issue, please wait two more cycles before submitting again.
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.
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