April 2026 Deadlines: 10 Contests and Magazines with Deadlines This Month

By Frontier Poetry | March 20, 2026

With plenty of opportunities to get your poetry out into the world this month, consider submitting your work! It’s a prime time to submit to chapbook contests, apply for residencies, and get your poems published. Don’t forget that acceptances and rejections are by-products of your publishing journey—crafting your authentic art is the ultimate goal. We want to see your poems in the world, wherever they emerge; you can submit poems for free to our New Voices or your chapbook for a fee to our Debut Chapbook Prize, too. This list is powered by the deadline service Literistic!

West Branch

The editors of West Branch welcome submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation. They normally read unsolicited manuscripts between August 1st and April 1st. Please send no more than six poems or thirty pages of prose. They prefer to receive no more than two submissions from a single contributor in a given reading period. Payment is awarded for accepted works in the amount of $100 per submission of poetry, and $.10/word for prose with a maximum payment of $200. Additionally, they provide each contributor with two copies of the issue in which their work appears and a one-year subscription to West Branch.

Deadline: April 1 // No Fee

Blood Orange Review

Blood Orange Review‘s editors want writing and artworks that change us and challenge us to redefine our sense of perspective. They look for voices, forms, conceits, logics, and occasions that surprise readers. They like poems that teach us something new about what poetry can do, be, or say. They seek weird poems and vulnerable poems and challenging poems and many other kinds of poems. Please send no more than 5 poems per submission. You are welcome to submit more than once per submission period.

Deadline: April 1 // Fee

Ninth Letter Summer 2026 Web Edition

Ninth Letter seeks work responding to the theme of “Reaction.” What sparks a reaction, and what is born out of it? Send stories, poems and essays that react without or before forethought, or deal with its spurious repercussions. Show poignant moments of unexpected emotion, or sudden bodily reflexes or the mind’s recoil. They welcome writing that spans the spectrum of reactions – chemical, physical, biological, psychological and political – and pieces that capture reaction in all its possibility and detriment. Submit up to three poems (no more than ten pages), along with a note that briefly explains your work’s connection to the theme. Submissions without this note will not be accepted.

Deadline: April 1 // No Fee

The Rising Poet Prize

Back by popular demand, the Rising Poet Prize is returning this spring! Palette Poetry invites all poets who have not yet published a full-length collection to send them your best poems. The winning poet will be awarded $3000, publication, and a brief interview in Palette Poetry. Second and third place will receive $300 and $200, respectively, as well as publication. The top ten finalists will be selected by Palette editors, and Guest Judge Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo will then select the winner and two runners-up from among the ten finalists.

Deadline: April 12 // Fee

New Ohio Review Contests

Poets are invited to submit up to 6 single-spaced pages of poetry per submission entry to New Ohio Review. New Ohio Review is a national literary journal produced by Ohio University’s Creative Writing Program. Winners in each genre will receive $1,500 and publication in New Ohio Review 37 or 38. Pieces that are not selected will still be considered for publication. Award-winning poet George Bilgere will judge poetry submissions.

Deadline: April 15 // Fee

Hambidge Residencies

The Hambidge Center is situated on 600 forested acres in the mountains of north Georgia. The oldest residency program in the Southeast, Hambidge provides a self-directed program that honors the creative process and trusts individuals to know what they need to cultivate their talent, whether it’s to work and produce, to think, to experiment, or to rejuvenate. Residents’ time is their own; there are no workshops, critiques, nor required activities. Each resident is given their own private studio which provides work and living space with a bathroom and full kitchen. Submit 12 to 15 double-spaced pages of your work along with other application materials to apply for a Fall residency.

Deadline: April 15 // No Fee

The American University of Paris Creative Writing Institute

The Summer Creative Writing Institute offers students opportunities to write and share poetry and fiction under the guidance of a highly accomplished faculty member. At the same time, students will enjoy Paris life and culture while becoming steeped in some of its great literary legacy. Visiting students enrolled in the Summer Creative Writing Institute select a single writing workshop in Poetry, Fiction, or Creative Nonfiction. Workshops meet three and a half hours per day, four days a week, allowing three-day weekends for writing, travel, and tourism. Three-week and six-week classes will take place throughout June and July.

Deadline: April 15 // Fee

The Florida Review Editors’ Award in Poetry

The Florida Review welcomes submissions from emerging and established writers and artists. Winner receives publication and $1,000 prize. All entries considered for publication. Winners will be announced in early fall and will be published the following spring. Up to 5 poems per entry, and simultaneous submissions allowed if work is withdrawn immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Please provide a title only on the manuscript (no author name or other identifying information on the poems, please). Submission fee includes a one-year subscription to The Florida Review.

Deadline: April 15 // Fee

Common Ground 2026 Poetry Contest

Common Ground‘s Poetry Contest offers a $500 first prize, $200 second prize, and $100 third prize, in addition to publication. They also publish Honorable Mentions. This year’s judge is Lisa Hase-Jackson, whose debut collection of poetry, Flint and Fire (Word Works) was selected by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Jericho Brown for the 2019 Hilary Tham Capital Collection Series. Simultaneous submissions are accepted on condition that we be told immediately if those poems have been accepted elsewhere. Poems can not have been published elsewhere and must be your own original work. Each contest entry can have up to 3 poems, of no more than 60 lines each, and poets can submit more than one entry as long as they also pay the fee for each entry.

Deadline: April 15 // Fee

Iowa Poetry Prize

The Iowa Poetry Prize, open to new as well as established poets, is awarded for a book-length collection of poems written originally in English. Manuscripts should be 50 to 150 pages in length. Put your name on the title page only; this page will be removed before your manuscript is judged. Poems included in the collection may have appeared in journals or anthologies; poems from a poet’s previous collections may be included only in manuscripts of new and selected poems. The winning manuscript will be published by the University of Iowa Press under a standard royalty agreement.

Deadline: April 30 // Fee