December 2025 Deadlines: 10 Contests and Magazines
There are plenty of opportunities to submit your work this month. Those who like to experiment and bend the edges of poetry, those looking to publish a chapbook, and our youngest emerging poets all have some great options below. Remember, acceptances and rejections are by-products of your publishing journey—crafting your authentic art is the goal. We want to see your poems in the world! As always, submit poetry for free to our New Voices. This list is powered by the deadline service Literistic.
The Atlanta Review
Atlanta Review publishes all kinds of great poetry; they do not subscribe to any particular “school.” They read and admire lyric, narrative, experimental, form, free verse, prose poems, and any other kind of poetry. To get a sense of the journal, read some back issues, or better yet, subscribe. They look for simply amazing poetry–poetry that delights, poetry that refreshes the spirit, that sparks curiosity, that intrigues the intellect, that fills the senses, that says something genuine about the world as well as the individual. They celebrate diversity and are open to many styles, forms, and kinds of poetry, about any and all subjects. Submit up to 5 previously unpublished poems.
Deadline: December 1 // Fee
The Georgia Poetry Prize 2025 Competition
Submit a manuscript with a minimum of 50 pages to a recommended maximum of 100 pages of original poetry. Poems included in the submission may have appeared previously in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks, but may not have been previously published in a book-length collection of the author’s own work. Authors may submit more than one manuscript to the competition for consideration as long as no material is duplicated between submissions, but each submission will require a separate entry fee. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. The author of the winning manuscript receives a cash award of $1,000, and their collection is subsequently published by the University of Georgia Press under a standard book contract.
Deadline: December 1 // Fee
Parley Lit
Send up to three poems total to Parley Lit. Parley Lit likes poems that acknowledge plot, even if they find a moving way to subvert it. They believe in work that is respectful, curious, funny as hell, dark or brutal. They fall for work that you can feel in your body, and for work that drags them through your world and gives them something to think about or remember when they leave.
Deadline: December 1 // No Fee
Thirteen Bridges Review
Thirteen Bridges Review is the professional literary arts journal produced by the Department of English and Philosophy at Auburn University at Montgomery. The journal’s mission is to present original and groundbreaking literary works by new and established writers from around the world. Thirteen Bridges Review wants your most captivating writing. Send your rhythmic sentences, vivid scenes, and nuanced characters their way. Offer poems that make the reader think, stories that make readers feel. There are no limits to creativity. Please limit your submission to three poems and submit them as one document.
Deadline: December 2 // No Fee
Puerto del Sol: The Doublethink Issue
Puerto del Sol is seeking work which engages with the theme of Doublethink. Doublethink: a paradox of the mind. Fact and opinion fused in contradiction. The two wolves within. Self induced hypnosis, self denial. The oppressed as weak but dangerous. The performance of a lie. The proletariat. The politique. Doublespeak. Doubling back. Words obscured and disguised. Send us work that navigates this dystopia, this manipulation; these reversals. Give them the feeling of contradiction. To know and not to know, and the choices between. This themed feature will appear as part of their Spring 2026 print issue. Please send up to 5 poems in one file.
Deadline: December 2 // No Fee
Posit
Posit is looking for innovation, aesthetic vision, and accomplished craftsmanship. This publication’s tastes are non-sectarian, with a particular interest in the experimental. Please include a minimum of five and a maximum of six poems for us to consider. Read past issues to find out what they’re looking for. Include a short bio, email address, social media handles and website in your materials. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify them if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please combine all of your poems into one document.
Deadline: December 5 // No Fee
Palette Poetry 2025 Love & Eros Prize
Palette Poetry’s Love & Eros Prize is returning for its fourth run this fall! They welcome you to share your love poems that explore the many and varied iterations of love. From the romantic and platonic, to the sweet and queer—the reverential devotion and gut-wrenching longing. What emotions branch from love? How are we all touched by love, and what shape does it manifest as in your life? This prize will be judged by 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin. The winner will receive $3,000; second and third place will receive $300 and $200, respectively. Finalists may also be considered for publication.
Deadline: December 7 // Fee
Stonecrop Magazine
Stonecrop is designed and edited by a small team of students and faculty from the College of Western Idaho. In general, the team reads and discusses submissions during the fall semester and sends notifications during the spring semester. They will occasionally notify acceptance in the fall, and notifications are sent in order of submission date. Send your previously unpublished original poetry in any style or format. Single poems, or groups in a single upload, are accepted. Limit to 5 poems per
Deadline: December 13 // No Fee
Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest
Center for Book Arts invites submissions to its annual Poetry Chapbook Program. CBA commissions artists to design and produce a limited-edition of 100 chapbooks for the competition winner’s manuscript, a limited-edition of 100 chapbooks for a manuscript by the guest judge, and a limited-edition broadside of 100 for each runner-up featuring one poem from their respective manuscripts. The competition winner receives ten copies of their chapbook, a $500 honorarium, a $500 stipend to participate in a competition reading public program, a week-long stay at Millay Arts during their Wintertide Rustic Retreat season (valued at $480), and one copy of the guest judge’s chapbook as well as the runners-up’s broadsides. The two runners up each receive prizes as well.
Deadline: December 15 // Fee
Polyphony Lit Fall Contest 2025
High school students (aged 14-18) from anywhere in the world are eligible to submit. The theme for this contest is “Things that Don’t Belong.” This fall, we invite you to have fun and explore what happens when something is out of place! How does displacement transform your story? What happens when the impossible becomes possible? Whether you explore this theme idea through a misplaced object, person, idea, or even emotion, whether you take a metaphorical or literal turn—we cannot wait to read your unique work. Let yourself wander into the unexpected and see how far you can stretch the limits of your imagination. There will be one winner and two finalists who will be eligible for prizes.
Deadline: December 31 // No Fee (Up to 200 Submissions)
