Submissions Guidelines
All work should be previously unpublished, unless it has appeared only on a personal website. If it has, please let us know. We require first rights for publishing work in Curator publications, as well as the right to publish in other publications by the Curator in future, should we decide to do so. The author retains the copyright and can publish elsewhere at any time following the first publication of the work by the Curator. We accept multiple and simultaneous submissions, but please limit simultaneous submissions to 5 at a time.
All Submissions
Submissions (with the exception of story submissions) may be submitted through the form below.
When to Submit
You can submit to the Curator year-round. We read weekly poem submissions throughout the year, and you should hear back from us in around two months after submitting. If you have questions about your submission, feel free to contact us.
Feedback on Weekly Poems Submissions
We are committed to helping writers to improve their craft and to publish their work. So we will provide feedback on Weekly Poem submissions that we rejected, if the author requests feedback.
If you submit poetry to our Weekly Poems, and we reject it, you’re welcome to reply asking for feedback. We’ll respond with a short explanation for why we didn’t publish it. Note that, because our editors are (trying to be) human, the more poems that you submit at one time, the less we’ll be able to say about each one of them.
For more specific help on your poetry, you can contact one of our editors.
Poetry submissions guidelines
We publish poems year-round as Weekly Poems, which appear both on our blog and in our printed biannual booklet. Occasionally we publish other poetry books, such as the Leaf or Home. Please specify which publication you are submitting to.
Simultaneous submissions are limited to 5 per author.
Poems are accepted based on their excellence in both form and content, and always at the discretion of the editors. We love both metrical and free verse. Poems should display poetic devices such as metaphor and imagery, and show the reader something fresh, deep, or delightful.
We currently don’t publish prose poetry.
If you’re interested in improving your poetry (or seeing what we think poetry should be like), see this resource:
Story submissions guidelines
We publish short stories on a monthly basis and once a year or so in our journal/book publications, such as (formerly) the Leaf.
We accept short fiction and pay authors $100 for accepted submissions.
We accept stories in the 2,500-5,000 word range, although we are open to making exceptions for the longer pieces.
We consider simultaneous submissions. Include a note indicating that the work is a simultaneous submission. If the story is accepted elsewhere please notify us immediately.
Send your best work. Include the author’s name and the word count at the top of the first page. Submit stories using the form at the bottom of this link.
Essay submissions guidelines
We publish essays on our blog. We accept essays that have to do with literature: close readings of poetry, book reviews, opinions on literature, etc., are all welcome. We will also certainly consider essays that do not fall under these categories.
Art & photography submissions guidelines
We publish visual art in our journal/book publications, such as (formerly) the Leaf.
Styles
- Drawings, paintings, photography, and other art forms are welcome.
- We do publish some portraits, but we tend not to publish as many of them. See our reasoning process in the next point.
- We are especially looking for art that pairs well with poetry, but doesn’t illustrate it. In poetry, we look for poems that convey an (often indefinable) emotion rather than explaining what is going on, and that’s (kinda) what we look for in art as well.
- We suggest reading some poems on our Weekly Poems list and asking yourself, “Would my art pair well with a poem in this style?” If so, chances are that it will pair well with the Leaf.
- If you’re creating an artwork especially for the Leaf, you might consider finding a Weekly Poem that you resonate with, creating an artwork based on the aesthetic of that poem, and submitting that artwork.
Parameters
- We print the Leaf in color.
- Photography should be in portrait orientation. It is also possible for us to use photos that have plenty of empty space for text overlay (see previous years of Leaf for examples).
- Our book’s page sizes limit the kind of art and photography that we can use. We can usually use portrait-oriented images easily. Landscape images can work if their visual interest is not primarily in the center (the crease of the book is there). We use artworks of other sizes as objects on a page. So if your art can be placed in the middle of a white page without unsightly edges, that works too. For example, if you have a drawing of a boot, we can use it as long as part of the boot isn’t cut off in your drawing.
- Take a high-quality photo or scan of your art. Do not downsize the image files that you send to us. We need the full resolution.
- Send the whole artwork. No cut off edges, please!