The Poetry Marathon

Recipe Poem contributed by Jennifer Faylor

Choose something unrelated to food to create a recipe for––joy, a winter holiday, or an ideal lover, anything goes. Make a list of five “ingredients” for your poem. For example:

Recipe for Averting Disaster 

Write a poem about a famous woman or an influential woman you know personally.

This is the last day to sign up for the 2020 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here. We will be sending out the final round of acceptances tomorrow, June 24th. If you do not here from us tomorrow, please send us an email at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

Over 475 people people have signed up for the marathon. We also recently announced that there will be an anthology open to everyone who successfully completes the full and half Marathon.

Right now about 50% have signed up for the half marathon – 12 poems in 12 hours, and 50% have signed up for the full marathon – 24 poems in 24 hours.

The marathon itself will start at 9 AM ET on the 27th of June and go till 9 AM on 28th. Half marathoners can start at 9 AM ET or 9 PM ET on the 27th.

This is an international event with participants from all around the globe. Generally 500 people attempt the marathon. You do not have to be a poet to participate. To find out how to convert your timezone go here.

To learn more go here. To sign up go here.

We will get back to applicants on a rolling basis. Most people who apply will be accepted. If you have not heard from us a week after applying please send us an email at poets@poetrymarathon.com. Please do not try and contact us through the FB page.

We are very happy to announce that the 2020 Poetry Marathon Anthology is going to happen! We had announced earlier that it would not be a part of this year’s events.

But after much ongoing discussion and after securing a generous private donation and contributing to that donation ourselves we are able to offer $550 dollars for someone to edit the anthology.

The Poetry Marathon Anthology is some writer’s first publication, and others’ hundredth, but it is always a clear representation of the range of people who participate in the event.

We have found an editor to work on the anthology this year. A huge thank you to everyone who applied.

You can see what last years looked like here.

Sign up is still open for the 2019 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here. Sign up will only be open til 9 PM on the 23rd.

We’ve had a lot of people sign up for the poetry marathon this year. Over 300 people and counting.

Right now about 50% have signed up for the half marathon – 12 poems in 12 hours, and 50% have signed up for the full marathon – 24 poems in 24 hours.

The marathon itself will start at 9 AM ET on the 27th of June and go till 9 AM on 28th. Half marathoners can start at 9 AM ET or 9 PM ET on the 27th.

This is an international event with participants from all around the globe. Generally 500 people attempt the marathon. You do not have to be a poet to participate. To find out how to convert your timezone go here.

To learn more go here. To sign up go here.

We will get back to applicants on a rolling basis. Most people who apply will be accepted. If you have not heard from us a week after applying please send us an email at poets@poetrymarathon.com. Please do not try and contact us through the FB page.

Sign up is now open for the 2019 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here.

The 2020 Poetry Marathon starts at 9 AM ET on Saturday June 27th and will go till 9 AM ET on Sunday the 28th of June.

Those who are interested in doing a half marathon start at 9 AM ET on June 27th and go till 9 PM on the 27th. Or they will start at 9 PM ET on the 27th and continue to 9 AM on the 28th.

The goal of the poetry marathon is to write and post one poem an hour for 24 hours. Half marathoners post a poem per hour for a 12 hour period.

This is an international event with participants from all around the globe. Generally 500 people attempt the marathon. You do not have to be a poet to participate. To find out how to convert your timezone go here.

To learn more go here. To sign up go here.

If you are interested in participating please sign up by the 23rd  of June! We will get back to applicants on a rolling basis. Most people who apply will be accepted. If you have not heard from us a week after applying please send us an email at poets@poetrymarathon.com. Please do not try and contact us through the FB page.

The sign up period for the 2020 Poetry Marathon will start on June 8th. It will end on the 23rd, and the marathon itself will start at 9 AM ET on the 27th of June and go till 9 AM on 28th. Half marathoners can start at 9 AM ET or 9 PM ET on the 27th.

During the sign up period we will have an easy to fill out form to apply to participate in the marathon. Most of the applications we will approve. We will answer all submissions in two waves (so probably on the 16th and the 24th and we will help orientate people during these periods. It is important everyone makes sure their login works before the marathon starts.

We are so happy to host again this year and we wish everyone the best of luck!

The Poetry Marathon will continue as planned on June 27th, 2020.

We will open to enrollment on the 8th of June and close on the 23rd. The Marathon will start at 9 AM ET, as will the first half-marathon, the second half-marathon will start at 9 PM ET.

We know this is a difficult time for everyone, and we know not everyone will be able to write poetry under this circumstances but we also know a lot of people really want to.

We are not sure if there will be an anthology this year. Even with an editor it puts a lot of work on us, and we are not sure how much we will be up to. Having two young children, a business we both run, and uncertain childcare has us in a difficult situation.

Because of this, we will not be able to participate in the full or the half marathon this year (barring a sudden and entirely unexpected change in the social isolation situation), which has broken both our hearts a little. We in no way want this, but we want to be there to support you.

We are again seeking volunteer leaders, especially for the second half of the marathon, so please reach out to us at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com, if you are up for that

We are also seeking prompts. Caitlin usually writes the majority of them, and she’d very much appreciate the help this year.

If we are a little slower at responding this year – we are sorry – feel encouraged to send us follow up emails. Know that we are trying our best, even if our best is lacking.

The best way to reach us is to send us an email at the above address or to comment on this. Please don’t send FB messages via our personal accounts or the official marathon page. They rarely reach us, and often after the fact.

You are all in our thoughts right now! As always feedback is very much appreciated.

Submissions to the 2019 Poetry Marathon Anthology are open now and will stay open through the 16th of July!

Read our guidelines carefully before submitting.

All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less.

All submissions must be made via the email address – poetrymarathonsubmissions@gmail.com

DO NOT email us at the email address we use for all other communication!

Jennifer Faylor is the editor of this years anthology. She resonates with William Carlos Williams’ sentiment “No ideas but in things” and especially appreciates poems with plunging emotional depths.

The subject line of all emails must be Poetry Submission. Poems must be included in the body of the email.

All poems submitted must be written during the 2019 Poetry Marathon. All poems should be completely edited and contain no major grammatical errors. Revisions are allowed and encouraged. Please check your punctuation before submitting. 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! Word has an auto caps feature that you can turn off by following the instructions below.

You must indicate which hour each poem was written in. Only poets who completed the whole or half marathon will be eligible to submit. Also indicate your location. Please include a link to your page on the Poetry Marathon.

Thank you for following the guidelines! I know they might seem a little strict but they make it possible to put together an anthology in a few months. The anthology should be published this fall.

There is no guarantee that by submitting your poem will be selected, although the goal is to include one poem by everyone who submits.

After the poems are published in the anthology all rights return to you.

Digital copies will be made available for free to any contributor. Print copies will be available for a reasonable price (last time it was nine dollars to purchase a copy) and any money that is made from selling the anthology will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.

Want to know what The 2017 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.

Presenting the winners of the 24 Hour Poetry Marathon!

Congratulations!

(Note that this is a tentative list – if you find any errors, please let me know!)

Hardika Sharma
Cindy Albers
Virginia
Anne McMaster
MelNeet
Wendy Jones
Angel Rosen
Alicia Sophia
earth2joy
Laurie McKay
willjxn
bluemuse
Lexanne Leonard
Leroy Leonard
tobett
Rachel Marco-Havens
Kerry Kelly
Amrutha B Nair
Kaye Vivian
vincentl
Kwills
garethroi
SarahJ
torrimbrown
CeeSie
dextajean
Simona FROSIN
ramonaelke
77poetess
vijaya
Danielle Wong
oatman
Santosha
factorjosh
Gina Surgeon
shirl
Justin Broderway
mhickok
janiceraquelamendonca
James Gromis
elsalovesbooks
megsat
Deborah Dalton
Aaron Conklin
Deanna Ngai
Angie Mountain
varenyas
Katelyn Dunne
Donna
Morgan Taylor
Saki
ccwrites
Jane and Friends
rainmaker
sjduncan
Cynthia Hernandez
afeathers
ladylazarus
AnshuSikchi
acheairs
natoraspen
devikasri
cinwhit
rosemars
AndaM
Renee A. Perkins
sophiag
dscoremans
linst
voldecurt
wormy76
Jan S
mavschick41
starlafahye
AQ
pagancatpoet
susanstedman
enelen13
clairek
mamakris
reenadosswriter
troll
Doc B
bevc721
El Berto
connieburgess
jgershon1213
wendyjones
zoe
ManuDrama
mayurakshichaturvedi
fiona
norabele
Samantha
bejeweledpoetry
garnetrose
dreethestoryteller
efellows