Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in Poets & Writers Magazine, a bimonthly trade publication for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Before you send us your submission, please read the following.

Our Audience

Available by subscription and on newsstands of most major bookstores, Poets & Writers Magazine reaches a national audience of 60,000 readers from emerging to established literary writers. The magazine has a strong following among both students and faculty in creative writing programs across the country. In addition, many of its readers pursue creative writing as an avocation, often pairing their literary lives with other careers.

What We Publish

We recommend that you read Poets & Writers Magazine before sending us a query or an article for consideration. You may also visit our online Archive, which contains a selection of articles from past issues. Our editorial content is divided into the following four sections. 

• News & Trends: brief articles (500-1,200 words) that keep our readers abreast of pertinent information in the writing and publishing industries.
• The Literary Life: essays (1,500-2,500 words) on the more contemplative aspects of writing, ranging from creative process to the art of reading.
• The Practical Writer: advice and how-to articles (1,500-2,500 words) that offer nuts and bolts information about the business of creative writing.
• Features: profiles of and interviews with (2,000-3,000 words) contemporary writers who reflect the rich diversity of current American literature. Recent featured authors include Anne Carson, Sandra Cisneros, Jonathan Franzen, Li-Young Lee, Chuck Palahniuk, Colson Whitehead, and C.D. Wright. Other features include articles and essays (2,000-3,000 words), frequently grouped into special sections, that provide an in-depth look at subjects of interest to creative writers, such as writers conferences and residencies, small presses, regional writing, and the distinctions of genre.

Submission Information

All correspondence should be addressed to The Editors, Poets & Writers Magazine, 90 Broad Street, Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004 and should include an SASE with appropriate postage, or sent via e-mail to editor@pw.org.

For those articles we publish, we buy First North American Serial Rights and non-exclusive reprint rights shared 50/50 thereafter. We pay when the piece is scheduled for production.

If you plan to query us with a story proposal, please include two samples of your journalistic writing.

For articles submitted on spec, manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, and no more than 3,000 words in length.

E-mail queries must be fully developed and must include two samples of your journalistic writing.

It usually takes four to six weeks for us to respond to your query or manuscript.

We do not publish original fiction or poetry.

We do not publish book reviews.

We do not accept queries made over the phone.

We do not cover genre fiction, such as mysteries, mainstream science fiction, romance novels, and children's literature, nor do we cover screenwriting and playwriting.

Photography

If you are a professional photographer and would like to be considered for commissioned work (or have existing photography of authors), please send a sample and contact information to Suzanne Pettypiece, Managing Editor, Poets & Writers Magazine, 90 Broad Street, Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004 or send a link to your Web site via e-mail to editor@pw.org. No phone calls please.

General Information

We are published by Poets & Writers, Inc., a nonprofit literary service organization that has been the central source of practical information for the literary community in the United States since 1970. To learn more, click here.