2026 Poetry Book Publishing: 175+ Deadlines and a Tool for Your Submissions

Plus trends going back to 2022, and an archive for researching publishers as you decide where to submit your writing.

Hello poets—I’m here with the 2026 update of the poetry publisher spreadsheet. This is the ninth year of putting this together, and I hope it helps you find a home for your book!

As I shared in December, this is my last update and the last newsletter for the Poetry Bulletin, because of recent health surprises and the need to reprioritize for that this year. I closed paid subscriptions in December, and all funds available for submission fee support have been redistributed to poets.

Thank you so much for all the kind replies to this news. Thank you to poets and publishers who shared experiences, asked questions, and passed along updates over the years.

And thank you to everyone who gave the project a boost with paid support. Thank you to a few anonymous poets who fed the submission fee support fund with extra contributions along the way—you always seemed to come through right when I got a burst of requests!

Together, we redistributed over $15,700 to more than 300 poets since the fee fund started in 2021. Using the average submission fee of $24 (in 2025), that’s more than 650 submissions . . . it’s been an honor to hear from so many poets and support so many books. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Some folks have asked how to say thanks or keep supporting the work . . . one of the best ways to keep the spirit of this project going is to keep opening doors: if you have the power to offer fee waivers or the funds to cover a fellow poet’s fees, thanks for doing and sharing what you can. If you’re judging a fee-based contest, ask the press to consider a fee-free period or a handful of waivers.

Where you find a gate, ask if it’s necessary. Ask how it changes the view. Ask who it protects and who it excludes.

If you’d like to support me directly, you can get my debut poetry book here from me or from Game Over Books. I also have a book called Surfacing, with short practices to give yourself feedback at the end of your writing sessions (available from me or Bookshop.org) . . . and maybe a long shot, but I’m looking for a publisher for my nonfiction book, about restlessness and impulse, written in the shapes of Lake Michigan . . . if you know of nonfiction deadlines or possibilities, I’d be grateful for any info!

For 2026, I’ve focused on the main tool of the Poetry Bulletin: the spreadsheet. This year, it has 183 reading periods and contest deadlines for full-length poetry books.

You can make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which makes it easier to filter out irrelevant deadlines and track your submissions. Check out the last column on the sheet for quick steps to make your own copy.

NEW for 2026, since I won’t be doing the monthly newsletter to highlight these: A second sheet (via a tab at the bottom of the screen) called “Accessible Opportunities.” This list of 88 deadlines is pulled out from the main sheet and includes ONLY deadlines that have:

• No submission fee

• Reduced fee options

• Sliding scale fees

• Fee waivers

Themes & Trends

Usually I also do a deep dive on the data, trends in submission fees, availability of fee waivers, and so on. That kind of analysis is its own big project each year, and unfortunately, it’s not in the cards for me now.

But there’s still plenty of relevant info to use from previous years, including notes on specific presses that are trying to make publishing more accessible and how they’re approaching it.

I gathered all the annual themes and trends posts in one place here.

There’s life in the archive—and it’s searchable!

An archive of Poetry Bulletin posts lives here. It goes back to when I moved the project to Substack in November 2022.

If you’re viewing the bulletin on the web (not in your inbox), you’ll find a search icon in the toolbar at the top of the page. It’s on the upper righthand side. This is great tool for using the archive to research opportunities, specific presses or contests, etc. It will point you to past mentions, changes at reading periods, or cautions that appeared in the Poetry Bulletin.

This is by no means an exhaustive reflection of publishers, but it can be a good starting point, especially if a press is new to you.

Again, thank you to everyone who supported the Poetry Bulletin. If I can share one closing thing, it’s just what I’ve felt more clear of over the years:

Every submission you make is an action, an ethic, you choose.

Where and how you submit makes your ethics a little more real.

What if we care about the poets we are submitting with, as much as the presses we are submitting to?

You get to decide if your submissions will be made in solidarity with poets who are marginalized and excluded. Researching a press and reading their guidelines isn’t just about following instructions. It’s a chance to ask: who is being welcomed here, and how? Who is included, and who is being ignored? Does that match my ethics or not?

It’s not nothing to choose with care . . . if you consider your art part of your resistance, it might be the most essential decision.

Thanks for the chance to be a part of your poetry practice over the years. Wishing all of us plenty of care & courage this year . . .

Emily Stoddard

(personal website, if you’d like to keep in touch)