Submission Guidelines

We are currently on hiatus and are not open for submissions.

Stone Poetry Quarterly uses Submittable to process all submissions. Although there is a $3 submission fee, decisions regarding publication are communicated within seven days of submission.

Stone Poetry Quarterly publishes poetry ranging from the visceral to the cerebral across a full scope of human experience and awareness. We prefer to publish poems that present a diversity of contemporary perspectives and are well-crafted, artistic explorations of language, subject, and image.

  1. For reasons of formatting, we may not be able to reproduce, exactly, poems that contain unconventional spacing or especially long lines. WordPress, the platform we use, though excellent in many ways, is somewhat restrictive in this regard. While we are not beyond using screenshots and various coding and formatting strategies to publish unconventionally-spaced work, such use often results in texts that look slightly altered in terms of font, shading, positioning, size, etc. We will do our best, but we ask that authors of work be accommodating, as well.
  2. No center-justified poems.
  3. No shock poems. There is one Bukowski and one Rollins, and that is enough.
  4. Subtly-metered verse may be acceptable, depending, but no rhyming, please.
  5. Submissions must not have been published, previously, in any form including, but not limited to, private blogs, FB, social, electronic, or traditional media.
  6. Do not submit AI-generated work. All AI-generated submissions will be rejected.
  7. We strongly encourage potential contributors to read through our Issues page to have a sense of the sorts of poetry we publish.

How to submit work to Stone Poetry Quarterly:

1. All submissions are handled through Submittable. Submit up to five poems via a single Word doc. attachment, no PDFs.

2. Do not indicate your name or any other identifying information in your Word doc. submission. This should appear in your cover letter.

3. Your cover letter should be addressed to Editor of Stone Poetry Quarterly.

4. Do NOT include a bio. If your work is accepted, we will ask for one.

5. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if work is accepted, elsewhere, so that we may remove it from our further consideration.

We consider submissions during four reading periods:

FIRST READING PERIOD: September 1 – October 31

SECOND READING PERIOD: December 1 – January 31

THIRD READING PERIOD: March 1 – April 30

FOURTH READING PERIOD: June 1 – July 31

Work received outside of these four reading periods will be discarded, unread.

We publish online four times a year in November, February, May, and August.

Please submit only once during any given reading period.

If your work is rejected, please wait six months before submitting, again.

If your work is accepted, please wait one full publishing year after your work has appeared before submitting again.

Submissions that do not comply with the above-stated guidelines will be rejected.

A note about letters of acceptance and rejection:
These are form letters. Everyone receives the same letters regardless of relative fame or stature within the literary community at-large. (We want to decide based upon the work, itself, rather than a bio. This is why we don’t want submitters to include bios — either in their cover letters or in their submissions.)

This is our letter of acceptance:

Dear [Submitter’s Name],

Congratulations! The editors at Stone Poetry Quarterly would like to publish your poem(s) [title of poem or poems] in our [month] issue. Please let us know if this is acceptable to you. Please also send us a bio of 100 words or fewer with whatever information you like, including publications and/or links.

Most often, acceptance depends on how well the submitted material fits with the aesthetic and level of content of the journal. This is why we highly encourage submitters to read our past issues and to follow our submission guidelines.

This is our letter of rejection:

Dear [Submitter’s Name],

Thank you for allowing the editors of Stone Poetry Quarterly to read your submission. Although we have decided not to publish your work, we wish you success in placing it elsewhere.

Rejections are not always a reflection of the submitter’s perceived ability as a writer. As mentioned, previously, the submitted material simply may not be a fit for us. To repeat: This is why we highly encourage submitters to read our past issues and to follow our submission guidelines.

Although the number of submissions we receive prohibits us from providing much in the way of feedback for submitters, we assure you that your work will be read, thoroughly, and that our responses will always be quick, respectful, and to the point. No nastiness. Ever.

Unfortunately, we are unable to pay accepted contributors for their work. Stone Poetry Quarterly is a labor of love. Submission fees go entirely to pay for Submittable and other areas of upkeep for the journal. Contributors who wish remuneration for their work should seek out grants.gov.

If your work is accepted at Stone Poetry Quarterly, you agree to grant us First North American Serial Rights, all archival rights, plus the rights to reprint in any future anthologies. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the author. You agree that if your poem/s subsequently appear/s elsewhere (in print or online), you will give us first publishing credit.

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