Submissions
We are currently open to submissions!
Please see below for our full guidelines—if you would like to be notified of openings, closings, and more, consider subscribing to our mailing list. If you have questions, please send them to queries@acediajournal.com. We will try our best to respond within a week.
Each year, we publish two issues. We accept submissions to these on a fixed basis in accordance with the following schedule:
Spring + Summer: April, May, June
Autumn + Winter: October, November, December
We are closed to incoming submissions from January 1st to April 1st and from July 1st to October 1st each year. All times are in PST.
Accepted poems are released individually on our website over the course of the submission period, and the complete issue is released both digitally and in-print within the following three months.
Schedule
Although we respect all genres of art, we are an all-poetry journal at this time. Please do not send any other art form, as it will be discarded unread. We do, however, appreciate versatility, and will therefore assume that all submissions were intended as poetry in order to give nontraditional forms equal opportunity. If we deem a submission not to be poetry, we will discard it unread and you will not receive a response; use your best judgement while choosing what to submit to Acedia.
In preparing your submission, take note of the following guidelines:
You may only submit during our three-month reading periods. If your submission is received while we are closed, you may not get a response.
To submit, either complete the form below (greatly preferred) or email submissions@acediajournal.com. If you choose to submit with our form, we’ll still notify you manually by email.
If you choose to submit via email, attach your work as a .pdf only. Include a cover letter, a third-person biographical statement, and social media links in the body of the email. You will not receive confirmation that it has been received.
Select no more than three poems. Submissions with additional pieces will be discarded in their entirety, and may not get a response.
Please only submit once per reading period. Additional submissions will be discarded unread and may not get a response.
We will not respond to or acknowledge anything other than submissions sent to our email address. If you have a query, email our staff directly or send it to our queries address mentioned at the top of this page.
Format
Content
Please do not include your name in the same file as your poetry. If you are submitting via email, be sure to indicate your full name exactly as you would like it published. This may include the censorship of your last name, a pen name, or something else you would like to be credited with. We will not make any edits to this text before publication.
For the safety of our poetry readers and editors, please note any trigger warnings either in the indicated section on our contact form or somewhere in the body of an email. It is always best to lean towards caution in the reporting of sensitive content.
Though it is at our own discretion that we reject content unfit for publication, we will never publish poetry that includes hate speech or any other explicit content not absolutely necessary to convey meaning.
Only poetry written primarily in English can be considered at this time, taking into consideration the languages of fluency of our staff and readership. Phrases in a different language are permitted, with or without translations.
We expect that our submitters send us their best work, and rarely permit revisions to accepted pieces. With that being said, we reserve the right to perform minor edits to accepted pieces while notifying the contributor. If you are unhappy with our suggestions, you may decline them.
Any questions should be directed to our queries email address, but please read carefully through our policies page beforehand. As always, the most efficient way to get accustomed to what we are looking for is to read the poetry we publish.
Acedia Journal happily considers simultaneous submissions, provided that you notify us if a piece is accepted elsewhere. In such an event, please email our queries address to have one or more of your poems withdrawn from consideration.
We classify work as “previously published” if it has appeared in any form on the internet or any other permanent archive. If a piece has appeared either visually or aurally on a blog, personal website, or social media platform, it should not be submitted.
Though we do not accept previously published work, we do permit the republication of poetry that has appeared on our website. You may reprint your work in any permanent venue so long as you credit Acedia as its first publisher. See the legal section of our policies page for more details.
Reprints & Simultaneous Submissions
Response Time & Feedback
Please expect up to three months to produce a decision, though we sometimes respond sooner—email submissions are always reviewed last. If you have not received a response to your submission after sixteen weeks, you may inquire about its status by emailing our queries address. Regular submissions do not receive feedback of any kind.
Though our submissions will always be free, we offer benefits for donors:
Expedited response time (two weeks or sooner) for $5+
One paragraph of detailed feedback for $5+
Please note that any donations to us, while greatly appreciated, will not affect our decision. If you do choose to donate, please make sure it is under the same name as your submission—we’re unable to verify the payment otherwise.
Click on the button above to access our form. All guidelines are not included there, so please be sure to format your submission properly beforehand. Send us your best!