The Poetry Marathon

I’m looking forward to writing about remote teaching this year.  I have a lot of material and my muse will inspire me.

Looking forward to taking part in the 2021 Poetry Marathon. All the best to everyone. 😇

My name is Jana O’Dell. I am 33 and live in West Virginia, USA with my wife, 3 kids and 9 fur babies. I have 3 published poetry books and have participated in the poetry marathon the last 2 years. This is my 3rd year participating. As past years, I will only be doing the half marathon. If you have Instagram, you can follow me @janaodell.author

OMG – i cannot wait – i  have not produced as many poems as i wanted this year and this will be a brilliant opportunity to get some first drafts out.

Sign up is now open for the 2021 Poetry Marathon! You can sign up here.

The 2021 Poetry Marathon starts at 9 AM ET on Saturday June 26th and will go till 9 AM ET on Sunday the 27th of June.

Those who are interested in doing a half marathon start at 9 AM ET on June 26th and go till 9 PM on the 26th. Or they can start at 9 PM ET on the 26th and continue to 9 AM on the 27th, 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 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 editor for the 2021 Poetry Marathon Anthology has now been chosen.

It was a very hard decision, with all the candidates making compelling arguments for why they would be a good choice.

One of the things I love about how the Marathon works is that the anthology has a new editor each year, and each year the editor shapes the anthology in different ways!

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 twice completed the full Poetry Marathon, in 2019 and 2020, and looks forward to it each year. One of her favorite things about the Poetry Marathon is reading the work of other poets, so she’s really looking forward to editing this year’s anthology.

Thank you for everyone who applied to the editor position! It is now closed.

We are also closing submissions of art at this time. Thank you to everyone who submitted.

We will be be contacting the potential editor this upcoming week and should announce this years editor by the end of April.

We will be replying to artists this week as well, although it might take us longer to sort out the details/finalize a cover (we probably won’t be making the cover itself till after the marathon).

Editing Position

We’re able to pay this year’s editor of the anthology $600 USD, after securing a generous private donation, as well as contributing to it ourselves.

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

You can see what last year’s looked like here.

Each year we choose a new editor, and the last two both did terrific job.

The anthology is a lot of work and 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 half marathon and full marathon sections, and to keep track of participant information. Optionally they can add introductions or subheadings.

If you are interested in applying to be the editor 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.

We are only interested in editors who have taken part in one half or full marathon previously. If you have not participated before please do not apply.

We close to submissions on April 23rd. We will respond to applicants by the end of April.

Artwork Submissions

We are also open to artwork submissions from anyone, previous marathoner or otherwise. 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 will respond to applicants that we are not interested in by the end of April, but may make our final selection between a few artists in July or August, once the anthology nears completion.

Please send work to poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.

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