I”ve been waiting for September! So many of the journals that publish poetry regularly are the product of universities and colleges, and consequently, their reading periods run from September through May. All summer long, I”ve been collecting links and submission guidelines so that I could keep my promise and only post publications that are actively accepting submissions. So. It”s September, and I”ve got a few places where you can submit your poetry NOW.

New England Review
New England Review is one of the country”s most respected literary publications. Recent contributors to NER have included David Roderick (winner of the 2006 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Award), Lucia Perillo (winner of the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award 2006), Carla Panciera (winner of the 2005 Cider Press Book Award), Michael Ryan (winner of the 2005 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award), Patrick Phillips (winner of the 2005 Kate Tufts Award), David Baker, Jane Hirshfield, Kimberly Johnson, Laura Kasischke, Eric Pankey, and Mark Wunderlich (recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowships) – the list could go on for several pages. Suffice to say that you would be in good company if your poetry is accepted for publication by NER. NER pays $10 per published page, and two contributor copies. Submission Guidelines can be found here.

Pearl Magazine is a 96-160 page, perfect-bound magazine featuring poetry, short fiction, and black & white artwork. We also sponsor the Pearl Poetry Prize, an annual contest for a full-length book, as well as the Pearl Short Story Prize, an annual fiction contest. Our annual poetry issue contains a 12-15 page section featuring the work of a single poet. The magazine is the love child of editors Joan Jobe Smith, Marilyn Johnson and Barbara Hauk. Pearl”s three femme editors, with their three very different poetic points of view, try to make Pearl an eclectic publication, a place for lively, readable poetry and prose that speaks to real people about real life in direct, living language, profane or sublime. To that end, they offer wonderful submission guidelines that contain some interesting quotes from a few famous poets. Do take the time to read about The Editors, just because it”s fun.

Prairie Schooner, a national literary quarterly published with the support of the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Press, is home to the best fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews being published today by beginning, mid-career and established writers. PS has been published for over 80 years and has published the work of Eudora Welty, Octavio Paz, Tennessee Williams, Weldon Kees, Joyce Carol Oates, and Rita Dove, Richard Russo, Reynolds Price, Julia Alvarez, Sharon Olds, Cornelius Eady, plus scores of others. Find their submission guidelines here