Poetry Bulletin: Important Update

A hiatus, and so much gratitude

A Lake Michigan sunset, before the snow landed in big sweeps and piles.

Hi poets — writing you today with an important update about the Poetry Bulletin. Please check out the details before posting any questions!

For about eight years, I’ve kept this project going through a lot of personal ebbs and flows. If you’re also someone with chronic illness/chronic pain/a body of surprises, you likely know the challenge . . . momentum isn’t always easy to come by, and you have to be extra thoughtful about which projects you commit to for the long haul.

My hope has always been that if my body decided I couldn’t take good care of the Poetry Bulletin, I’d give ample notice to you all and gracefully transition the project to another caretaker. But the funny thing about this little vision is that it assumes my body would also give me ample notice . . . which has pretty much never happened? (But I guess this means I’m still optimistic somehow? Or foolish? I don’t know.)

So here’s the situation: a recent health surprise means I need to step back. The Poetry Bulletin will be on hiatus starting early 2026.

Please read through these essentials before posting any questions:

• I’m pausing paid subscriptions as of today, even though the project won’t be on hiatus until late January/early February 2026.

• As always, half of paid subscriptions go to the submission fee support fund. Funds received so far have been fully redistributed to poets, and submission fee support requests are now closed. Over $15,500 has been distributed to more than 300 poets to submit their poetry books and chapbooks. Your support has been incredible, and there are multiple books that found their publisher because of it—thank you!

• The other half of paid subscriptions have gone to the time and energy in caring for this project, completing research, commissioning care package posts, domain costs, etc.

• I still have work to do, even though paid support will be paused. I’m still committed to doing the big 2026 poetry publisher spreadsheet update. I know a lot of you rely on this every year, and I’ll just feel better if I can make it a kind of parting/closing gift. This is a line-by-line update of over 175 reading periods and contest deadlines, and it will likely take me longer this year. I’ll try to share it with you by the end of January 2026.
  

If you have questions or thoughts, please leave them as a comment on this post. That will help keep information public and transparent, save me the time of answering duplicate questions, etc.

I still hope to transition the project to another caretaker, but it will take time. I want to create documents for the next person, and I want to be available for questions/interim support. Right now, I wouldn’t be able to show up well for that kind of support, which is a big reason why I opted for a hiatus, even though my dream was a seamless transition.

So even though the project will go quiet in early 2026, I’ll still be working (slowly) behind the scenes next year to connect with folks who might feel a pull to do this work.

Like I’ve said many times before, this project is a collective one. It’s ours, not mine. I’m just stewarding it . . . I really do think of it like an ecosystem and hope the next caretaker(s) feel the same. I don’t own the forests or the lakeshore or the rivers near my home here in Michigan. Likewise I don’t own the Poetry Bulletin. I don’t consider it “my” mailing list, although it’s obviously a big source of connection for me, and I’ll miss that. But the data and these resources belong to all of us. The work of calling for a fair publishing ecosystem is all of ours, in different ways. It’s important to me that the Poetry Bulletin transitions to someone who understands that and who feels excited to be the next steward.

Again, if you have questions or thoughts, please leave them as a comment on this post. Huge thanks in advance for your patience and understanding with this unexpected news. And good vibes/caring thoughts are definitely appreciated as I navigate a new season personally.

With gratitude,

Emily Stoddard

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The bulletin is made by Emily Stoddard, and the big list of poetry publishers came together as she found a publisher (Game Over Books) for her poetry debut, Divination with a Human Heart Attached. If you have updates to a publisher’s listing, leave a comment. Comments are preferred to email replies, as they get the information out to everyone more freely and quickly.