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 2026 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 Only previously unpublished work will be considered.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 $12 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, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.
Each entry must include: 1) an entry fee of ten dollars ($12) 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We accept submissions of previously unpublished art consisting of a portfolio of 12 images to be paired with the written works in each of our issues.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.