We welcome submissions that blur genre and play with form, experiment with compression or expansion, use language in surprising ways, and bring attention to subject matter of contemporary urgency or uncommon interest. We especially love work that is tender, weird, and wild, hard-hitting and incisive, clear-sighted and daring. Stun us, wound us, share your gifts, or keep us warm—send us work that is unapologetically yours.
This Editors' Choice prize for a single poem is open to any poet writing in English. The contest awards $250 to the first-place winner, $100 to the second-place winner, and $50 to the third-place winner and includes publication in the summer 2025 issue of Birdcoat Quarterly.
All submission will be read anonymously by our team of editors and a first-place, second-place, and third-place essay will be chosen for prize and publication. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. You may submit up to three (3) poems per $10 entry fee.
We only accept submissions via Submittable. Please take care that you are submitting under the contest category as regular submissions received during the contest period WILL NOT be entered into the contest. The deadline for contest submissions is December 1, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.
Each entry must include: 1) an entry fee of ten dollars ($10) and 2) the submitter's contact info (do NOT include any identifying information on the manuscript itself).
Simultaneous submissions will be considered with notification. All rights revert to author after publication.
We accept submissions of previously unpublished art consisting of a portfolio of 12 images to be paired with the written works in each of our issues. You can look through our previous issues on https://birdcoatquarterly.com/ to see how this looks and determine whether or not your work might be a fit. Please submit all 12 images, making sure that all images are the same size, and verify that all rights belong to you.
If published, all rights will remain yours. We pay $10 per image to use the images on our website.
We offer an expedited option with an expected response time of two weeks. Submitting through the expedited option does not guarantee acceptance.
Please send one creative/lyric nonfiction essay of up to 5,000 words. We welcome submissions that blur genre and play with form, experiment with compression or expansion, use language in surprising ways, and bring attention to subject matter of contemporary urgency or uncommon interest. We especially love work that is tender, weird, and wild, hard-hitting and incisive, clear-sighted and daring. Stun us, wound us, share your gifts, or keep us warm—send us work that is unapologetically yours.
We offer an expedited response time with an expected response time of two weeks. Submitting through the expedited option does not guarantee acceptance.
Please submit up to 3 poems in one document. We welcome submissions that blur genre and play with form, experiment with compression or expansion, use language in surprising ways, and bring attention to subject matter of contemporary urgency or uncommon interest. We especially love work that is tender, weird, and wild, hard-hitting and incisive, clear-sighted and daring. Stun us, wound us, share your gifts, or keep us warm—send us work that is unapologetically yours.
We welcome submissions of creative nonfiction with a focus on lyric essays. While the definition of what makes a lyric essay is expansive and ever-evolving, our editors gravitate towards work that experiments with form and language, complicates our understanding of a topic, challenges our sense of certainty, or eschews truth in favor of the unknown, and takes us somewhere new. We are not particularly interested in essays that simply inform or document, but ones that bring to us to the threshold (of what? Anything) and incite conversations. We're looking for your essays that meander through time, challenge expectations, introduce nuance, humor, and paradox. We want work that lingers, elides, and leaves things unsaid. All is fair play for the lyric essay.
Please send one essay of up to 5,000 words or up to four related short essays within the same total word limit.
Please submit 3-5 poems in one document. We welcome submissions that blur genre and play with form, experiment with compression or expansion, use language in surprising ways, and bring attention to subject matter of contemporary urgency or uncommon interest. We especially love work that is tender, weird, and wild, hard-hitting and incisive, clear-sighted and daring. Stun us, wound us, share your gifts, or keep us warm—send us work that is unapologetically yours.