Submissions to the 2020 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 Shloka Shankar. Shloka is a freelance writer, poet, editor, publisher, visual artist, and surface pattern designer from Bangalore, India. She enjoys experimenting with Japanese short-forms, visual poetry, and myriad found poetry techniques alike.
A Best of the Net nominee and award-winning haiku poet, her poems and artwork have appeared in over 200 online and print venues of repute. When she isn’t writing or poring over manuscripts, she dabbles in abstract/digital art and conducts online poetry workshops to spread her love for words and art. Shloka is the founding editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint, Yavanika Press. You can visit her website here.
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@
DO NOT email us at the email address we use for all other communication!
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 2020 Poetry Marathon. All poems should be completely edited and 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.
To turn off automatic capitalization, follow these steps:
- Go to Tools. | AutoCorrect Options.
- On the AutoCorrect tab, deselect the Capitalize First Letter Of Sentences check box, and click OK.
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 2019 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.
Thank you for the opportunity to have another great Poetry Marathon Anthology even in this difficult times.
Best wishes to all of you!
Many thanks again to The Poetry Marathon team for this opportunity. Now, I will be concentrating (in the next 24 hours) on sending my two poems for the anthology.
Special greetings to the editor, Shloka Shankar. I looked at Sonic Boom and downloaded the April 2020 edition (17th issue). I will read it.
To you all poetry marathoners, best wishes with your submission.
Prompts 24
Inside Me
Depeche mode deep dark bittersweet skin
Evokes soft sensitive emotional one
Enrage by darkness, but composed by love
Wretch and harmless as a baby bottom
She lays motionless by the sea,
Riveting thoughts portray her sentimental senses
complied in me.
Myia Sullivan,
Your poem equivocates the sensation of hot buttered toast dipped in the well-stirred cup of hot chocolate during a thunderstorm, torrential deluge following and you are too strong to care about the rain. Thank you.
Seventh Solstise
Seventh Solstise