Thanks to the hard work of Erin Lorandos, who volunteered their time and energy to take full responsibility for publishing an anthology of poets from the 2023 Poetry Marathon. Erin has asked that we post the anthology here, for everyone to enjoy. The link to the full PDF is below:
The Poetry Marathon
Save the Date!
We have an official date for 2024! It will start at 9 AM ET as always, and continue on till the 16th!
The goal of the marathon is to write one poem per hour for 12 or 24 hours.
Sharing a Submission Opportunity
Amanda Potter, an active and long term Poetry Marathon participant has put out the following call: If you have any questions please send her a message at the below address;
“I am pleased to announce a special call for submissions for our first volume of Prompted Poetry, coming out the second quarter of 2024. At Prompted Poetry Publications we hope to encourage more people to read and write prompted poetry. Please find all the requirements below.
When: Submissions open 11/15/2023 and will close 12/1/2023
With Subject line “Poetry Marathon Submission”
In the body of your email please include your name, location, and the WordPress link to each of the poems you are submitting. You can include a short 5 to 7 line Bio and website.
Please attach each poem separately as a google doc or Word doc in Verdana 12pt font for body, 14pt for “Title”, 9pt for author Name under title. Singled Spaced and Center aligned.
What: Poems written during the 9/2/2023 Marathon, poems should’ve been specifically written to the prompts for the following hours: Hour 7, Hour 13, Hour 14, Hour 15, and Hour 22.
Please be sure that your poems are fully edited. Feel free to submit for each of the requested hours.
NOTE: Submission does NOT guarantee acceptance. There is NO payment if you are chosen for publication.”
The Online Anthology is Open to Submissions!
The online anthology is open for submissions! Please send your two favorite poems written during the Poetry Marathon via email by October 21st to the Online Anthology email: poetrymarathononline@gmail.com
Submissions should include: Your Name, Location, and Hour written. If formatting is important, you can attach your poem in a separate document.
Please edit your poems for punctuation, spelling and grammar before sending. Do not send any poems that contain racist or vulgar themes, or contain profanity. If you do, we’ll be unable to include your work in the online anthology.
P.S. The Poetry Marathon organizers are very excited about this anthology, but we are not directly involved in it. Erin Lorandos is organizing it!
Submissions to the 2023 Poetry Marathon Anthology Are Open
Submissions to the 2023 Print Poetry Marathon Anthology are open now and will stay open through the 30th of September. For the first time the anthology will only contain curated submissions. That is to say, this year’s editor, will only be choosing between 80-100 poems to include in the anthology.
We understand that this is a real shift, and we ourselves have lots of doubts about it, but the growing length of the anthology was causing serious logistical issues every year. This is the last year the marathon founders, Caitlin and Jacob, plan to host the anthology, although we hope there continues to be some version of it going forward.
This year, there will also be an electronic anthology that still accepts all submissions. Erin Lorandos, a long time marathoner and compelling poet (you can read one of her poems here), is putting together that anthology and will consider submissions between the 7th and 21st of October.
We are very excited to have Blessing Omeiza Ojo as our print anthology editor this year. He is the Deputy Editor of Litvo Magazine and the Chairman of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, Abuja. His works have been translated into several languages including Yoruba, French and Italian. His poetry has received nominations for Best of the Net, Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize, Creators of Justice Awards, Castello di Duino International Poetry and Theatre Competition, Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest and the Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize. His literary awards include the Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize (Ambassador Special Prize 2019), the 2020 Artslounge Literature Teacher of the Year Award, the 2021 Words Rhymes & Rhythm Nigerian Teacher’s Award, 2022 & 2023 Maryam Aliyu Award for Best Teacher (Male) and the 2023 Nigeria Prize for Indigenous Languages (Yoruba). Omeiza is a Creative Writing Mentor with progenies already prize winners and slam champs.
The anthology is only possible if people follow the guidelines, so please follow them.
All poems submitted must be written during the 2023 Marathon, and the writer must have completed the full marathon or half marathon in 2023.
All poems should be completely edited and as much as possible contain no major grammatical errors. Revisions are allowed and encouraged before submitting. Please check your punctuation. All poems should be single spaced. Any extra space will probably be interpreted as a stanza break. The first word of every line should not have a capitalization unless it is intentional.
When you submit you must include in the email the following:
- The subject line should read “2023 Marathon Submissions”.
- The body of the email should make it clear if you are a half or full marathoner.
- You should then state your location (e.g Nigeria, Abuja).
- It should also include the hour of the marathon the poem was written in.
- As well as a link to your poetry marathon page. If your poetry marathon name is different than your name, include both and make it clear which name you want to appear in the anthology.
- Two poems pasted into the body of the email. All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less.
Please follow all these guidelines. Use the above list as a checklist for your email submission and only press send once you’ve reviewed it twice.
All marathon submissions must be made via this email address: poetrymarathonsubmissions@gmail.com
DO NOT email us at the email address we use for all other communications.
Due to issues that happened in the past, no one is allowed to announce that their poem has been accepted for publication till November 15th, unless notified otherwise. Announcements made on the marathon groups before November 15th, will be deleted. Please do not query about the status of your submission via email or the FB page till after November 15th.
Thank you for following the guidelines! I know they might seem strict but they make it possible to put together an anthology in a few months.
After the poems are published in the anthology all rights return to you.
Digital copies will be made available for free to any participant in the marathon, even those not included in the anthology. Print copies will be available for a reasonable price and any money that is made from selling the anthology will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.
Announcing the Finishers of the 2023 Poetry Marathon
Dear Poets,
Here’s our initial list of everyone who successfully finished the 2023 Poetry Marathon. These poets wrote 24 poems in 24 hours. Congratulations to everyone who achieved this incredible challenge! You are amazing!
Please note: This list contains errors. We need your help to correct those errors. If your name is in the wrong list, or missing, when it should be there, please let me know by email poets@thepoetrymarathon.com. Any error was in no way intentional. There are so many participants, it is very difficult to create an accurate list. Your help with correcting any errors is greatly appreciated.
Thank you to everyone who participated this year!
You can see the finishers of the half marathon here.
When you are ready, you are very much encouraged to comment on the many wonderful poems written during the marathon by these wonderful poets. — Jacob
Announcing the Finishers of the 2023 Poetry Half Marathon
Dear Poets,
Here’s our initial list of everyone who successfully finished the 2023 Poetry Half Marathon. These poets wrote 12 poems in 12 hours. Congratulations to everyone who achieved this challenge!
Please note: This list contains errors. We need your help to correct those errors. If your name is in the wrong list, or missing, when it should be there, please let me know by email poets@thepoetrymarathon.com. Any error was in no way intentional. There are so many participants, it is very difficult to create an accurate list. Your help with correcting any errors is greatly appreciated.
You can see the finishers of the full marathon here.
Thank you to everyone who participated this year!
When you are ready, you are very much encouraged to comment on these amazing poets’ work. — Jacob
I Survived the 2023 Poetry Marathon
The following images are part of the Poetry Marathon Tradition. They are for you to do with what you want, but they are often used as a way to celebrate your success. Full disclaimer, as per every year, two of them leans a little into dark humor.
The official list of everyone who completed the half marathon and the full marathon will be released in the next few days. Remember if you are not on the list it probably has more to do with our algorithm than with you, and please reach out so we can correct it.
Congratulations Full Marathoners!
Congratulations full Marathoners! I am so happy that you have completed 24 poems in 24 hours! That is wonderful. Thank you for joining us for this intense events. .
In the past I have personally verified that everyone who applied for a certificate was eligible and then I would make a certificate. Due to how big the marathon has grown, this is no longer possible. Now we operate on the honor system.
If you completed the Poetry Half Marathon please consider the following certificate yours, to update with your name, to print if you choose to do so. If you need any help altering the certificate please email me at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.
You are welcome to use this tool get get the certificate with your name on it.
Congratulations again on your completion of The Half Marathon.
The visual example of what the certificate will look like is right below this text:
Also this year we will be putting together two anthologies.
The print anthology will be edited by Blessing Omeiza Ojo, a terrific poet (you can read one of his poems here) and a long time participant in the marathon. For the first time ever there will be rejections for the print edition. He will pick between 80-100 poems to publish in the anthology. This is the last time that the co-founders of the poetry marathon, are paying for the print anthology, and the last time we will formally be “in charge” of any anthology. You can learn more about why, here.
That being said the wonderful poetry marathon community is already stepping up, and Erin Lorandos, another long time marathoner and compelling poet (you can read one of her poems here), is putting together an electronic anthology that includes everyone’s work
Submissions for the print anthology will be open from the 18th through the 30th of September. Submissions for the electronic anthology will be open between the 7th and 21st of October. More details about both anthologies will be forthcoming soon.
Digital copies will be made available for free to any contributor. Print copies will be available for a reasonable price and any money that is made from them will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.
Want to know what The 2022 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.
Congratulations Half Marathoners!
Congratulations Half Marathoners! I am so happy that you have completed 12 poems in 12 hours! That is wonderful. Thank you for joining us for this intense events.
In the past I have personally verified that everyone who applied for a certificate was eligible and then I would make a certificate. Due to how big the marathon has grown, this is no longer possible. Now we operate on the honor system.
If you completed the Poetry Half Marathon please consider the following certificate yours, to update with your name, to print if you choose to do so. If you need any help altering the certificate please email me at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.
You are welcome to use this tool to get the certificate with your name on it.
Congratulations again on your completion of The Half Marathon.
The visual example of what the certificate will look like is right below this text.
Also this year we will be putting together two anthologies.
The print anthology will be edited by Blessing Omeiza Ojo, a terrific poet (you can read one of his poems here) and a long time participant in the marathon. For the first time ever there will be rejections for the print edition. He will pick between 80-100 poems to publish in the anthology. This is the last time that the co-founders of the poetry marathon, are paying for the print anthology, and the last time we will formally be “in charge” of any anthology. You can learn more about why, here.
That being said the wonderful poetry marathon community is already stepping up, and Erin Lorandos, another long time marathoner and compelling poet (you can read one of her poems here), is putting together an electronic anthology that includes everyone’s work
Submissions for the print anthology will be open from the 18th through the 30th of September. Submissions for the electronic anthology should be between the 7th and 21st of October.. More details about both anthologies will be forthcoming soon.
Digital copies will be made available for free to any contributor. Print copies will be available for a reasonable price and any money that is made from them will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.
Want to know what The 2022 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.