The Poetry Marathon

Not exactly a text prompt

Listen to the following song before writing a poem, you can also play it again and write with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5j1AwBaPtk

Image Prompt

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Text Prompt

Read Robert Frost’s poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,  chose one line or phrase, and with credit, write a poem with that line or phrase in it. Prompt partially contributed by Se Johnson.

Image Prompt

Photo by Rayson Tan on Unsplash

For the second year in a row we are offering word and image prompts. The first prompt every hour will be text based (with occasional variations), and the second, if you scroll down, will be image based. You can choose either prompt or not use prompts at all (or only sporadically). All images are either taken from unsplash, or contributed by a poetry marathoner with credit.

Text Prompt

Write a poem about being in water. It can be about swimming, the shower, a bath, the rain, etc.

Image Prompt

Photo by Valentin Salja on Unsplash

This is the last day to sign up for the 2022 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here. We will be sending out the final round of acceptances tomorrow. If you do not here from us tomorrow, please send us an email at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

The marathon itself will start at 9 AM ET on the 25th of June and go till 9 AM on 26th. Half marathoners can start at 9 AM ET or 9 PM ET on the 25th.

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 three days 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 2022 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here.

The 2022 Poetry Marathon starts at 9 AM ET on Saturday June 25th and will go till 9 AM ET on Sunday the 26th of June.

Those who are interested in doing a half marathon start at 9 AM ET on June 25th and go till 9 PM on the 25th. Or they can start at 9 PM ET on the 25th and continue to 9 AM on the 26th, which works better for some time zones.

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 June 19th! We will get back to applicants on a rolling basis. Most people who apply will be accepted. If you have not heard from us by the 19th of June please send us an email at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com. Please do not try and contact us through the FB page. We will make sure everyone who contacts us, gets an opportunity to participate.

Hello everyone! We are thankful for the many wonderful and qualified individuals who applied for the editor positions this year.

We are very grateful to announce the editors of The 2022 Poetry Marathon Anthology! They are both excellent writers and editors, and long term members of the Poetry Marathon community.

This year’s Full Marathon Editor Ofuma Agali is a 44 years old writer and editor based in Lagos, Nigeria. His works have appeared in Nigerian publications – Post Express Literary Supplement, The Guardian, The Vanguard, and National Mirror – as well as in publications in other climes – Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Praxis Journal of Gender & Cultural Critiques, The Kalahari Review, and The Purposeful Mayonnaise. In his early years of creative writing, his poem, Sunset at Midnight, received a Special Commendation at the 2001 Poetry Competition of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Festival. To date, five of his poems have been published in poetry anthologies, including two Poetry Marathon anthologies. He has also written a full-length published collection of poems, If We Are Willing The Earth Will Listen (2017). A revised version of this is ready for publication later this year. He has also written two full-length unpublished collections of short fiction. His current works in progress include a collection of short fiction, a collection of poems, a novella, and a novel.  Besides creative writing, he is also a journalist, a marketing communication practitioner, and when he has the time, he likes to assume the work of a healthy living advocate. He holds a first degree in physics from the University of Uyo and a post-graduate diploma in marketing management from the Lagos State University. He is a father of three high-spirited boys, and that often feels like a full-time job.

This year’s Half Marathon Editor Cristy Watson is an award-winning author of eight novels for MG and YA readers. She loves entering writing contests and was thrilled to receive Editor’s Choice in the CV2, 2-Day Poem Contest in 2013. She also regularly participates in the Poetry Marathon in June, and she has a poem in an important and timely new anthology, ‘Worth More Standing’ (Caitlin Press; Christine Lowther, editor). She also volunteers at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference and was recently Committee Chair for Wise Words through the BC Federation of Writers. She completed a manuscript evaluation for an author through The Writers Union of Canada, as well as helping to previously judge their short fiction contest, and in the past few years, she has assisted writers of fiction, non-fiction, memoir and poetry. You can find her here: cristywatsonauthor.wordpress.com

Thank you for everyone who applied to the editor position! It is now closed. We look forward to announcing this years editors next week.

Editing Position

For the first time this year we are going to have two editors  – although we are still planning on publishing only one anthology. One editor will be in charge of the half marathon section of the anthology. The other editor will be in charge of the full marathon section of the anthology. You can see what last year’s looked like here.

We’re able to pay each editor of the anthology $350 USD. It is still a lot of work for the payment, and we want editors to approach the position with that in mind.

The Poetry Marathon Anthology is many writers’ first publication, and others’ hundredth, but it is always a clear representation of the range of people who participate in the event. The editor is expected to choose one poem out of two that participants can submit, to publish in the anthology. They’re also expected to organize them in an order they feel is engaging, and to keep track of participant information, and write a brief one to two page introduction. Optionally they can organize the anthology with subheadings.

The goal this year is for editors to respond to all submitters by September 1st, although the anthologies need not be organized by that point. The anthology itself is usually published in early December.

If you are interested in applying to be one of the editors of this year’s anthology, send an email to poets@thepoetrymarathon.com, with a link to your poetry marathon profile/blog, and a paragraph or two explaining your previous experiences. CVs are not needed. Please make it clear if you are applying to be the full marathon editor or the half marathon editor.  Applicants for the full marathon should have completed the full marathon before, the same goes for the half marathon position. If you have not participated in the marathon at all before, please do not apply. Previous editors of the anthology should also not apply. We want to feature new editors every year.

We close to submissions on May 26th. We will respond to applicants by the first of June

Artwork Submissions

We are also open to artwork submissions from anyone, previous marathoner or otherwise. If your art has been on the cover before, do not submit again. We want to feature new artists every year.

Work must belong to you and you must be comfortable with us turning it into a book cover (digitally of course).

You can submit something that already exists or link to your previous art work examples and offer something new. No more than five pieces of artwork can be submitted per person. Any medium is allowed, as long as it can be turned into a print book cover. High quality resolution images are a must, though your initial submissions can be lower resolution.

We tend to chose images that either have space for the title and editor’s name built into the image or an image that can be interrupted by the title or editors name. We have never chosen an image featuring winter or specific holidays/overtly religious, but other that we are open to most images.

We will respond to applicants that we are not interested in by the end of June, but may make our final selection between a few artists in July or August, once the anthology nears completion.

We close to art work submissions on June 20th. Please send work to poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.

If you have any question about either position please send us an email at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.

The Poetry Marathon and Half Marathon will take place June 25th this year. The full marathon will start at 9 AM ET on the 25th and go to 9 AM ET on the 26th of June. There are two half marathons. One starting at 9 AM ET on the 25th and ending at 9 PM ET, and the other starting at 9 PM ET on the 25th and going to 9 AM ET on the 26th.

Registration for all participants will be open from June 1st through the 19th.

If you are interested in contributing art or being an editor for this years anthologies, details will go live on May 16th, and submissions will be open from then through the 26th of May.

Submissions to the 2021 Poetry Marathon Anthology are open now and will stay open through the 25th of July!

We our pleased to announce that our editor this year is

Read our guidelines carefully before submitting.

All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less. Only one submission per person.

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 communications!

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 2021 Poetry Marathon. 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! 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 and any money that is made from selling the anthology will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.

Poems should be cut and pasted into the body of the email. If the formatting is important you can attach it as .doc or .docx.

This year’s anthology editor is Cynthia Hernandez.

Cynthia Hernandez experiences life as poetry and expresses it through writing, photography, visual arts, and her relationships. Born and raised in Washington State, Cynthia has enjoyed a lifelong love affair with rain, sun, wind, trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, and the vast waters of the Puget Sound. When not writing, taking photos of birds, flowers or sunsets, or throwing herself into her work at King County government, Cynthia can be found in conversation, celebration and presence with her son Gabe, family, and friends. Cynthia has self-published two collections of poetry and is working on a third. She has thrice completed the full Poetry  and looks forward to it each year. .