Thank you so much for your interest in Lit Shark’s Poem of the Month Contest! Please see our submission guidelines below for more information.

To Submit to Lit Shark’s Poem of the Month:

Each month, we will consider poetry for our Poem of the Month feature, which will be published on the 15th of the following month (example: submissions received throughout the month of September would be considered for October’s Poem of the Month, appearing on October 15). Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis; they won’t be disqualified or ignored.

To submit, please include your name and email in the body of your message. The message box should contain your author bio and anything else you’d like us to know at the time of submitting. Due to the nature of this contest and the inclusion of a poetic broadside, reprints are NOT being considered at this time.

Your attached document should not include your name or other identifying information, so we can ensure a blind, unbiased reading of your work. Written works should be attached as PDFs or Word docs.

Please send your submissions, following the directions above, through the portal below.

Poetry: Up to 5 poems or 10 pages. No theme is required! NO REPRINTS can be considered for the Poem of the Month feature; we’re sorry for the inconvenience.

1 Winner will be selected each month. The winner will receive:

• $20 honorarium
• A digital copy of an original broadside created of their poem
• A feature on LitShark.com
• Inclusion in the next issue of Lit Shark Magazine (unless it’s the Spooky Edition, in which case the poem would be featured if it’s spooky in nature, or else it would be featured in the fourth issue of the year instead)

Additional Honorable Mentions may be named, and they will be noted in the monthly Poem of the Month post on LitShark.com, and they will be included in the next issue of Lit Shark Magazine (again, with the possible exception of the Spooky Edition).

Technical Difficulties?

If you’re unable to submit or upload a document using our form, please contact our EIC directly at mckenzie @ litshark [dot] com. 

In the BODY of the email, please include your name, your email address, your author bio, the issue you are interested in submitting to (or if this is a Poem of the Month submission), and anything else you’d like us to know (if this work is a reprint and where it was previously featured, etc.).

Your submission should be attached as a PDF or Word doc. Do not include any identifying information. McKenzie will ensure that your submission is randomly mixed into the submission pile to ensure it receives the same blind and fair reading as those submitted through the portal.

Thank you all for your support and for trusting us with your work!