Submission Guidelines
Poets and translators of poetry are invited to submit a manuscript over 40 pages accompanied by a cover letter, which includes a short bio. If you have a connection to Queens, please mention it in your cover letter.
We are open to both emerging and established poets and translators.
For translators, indicate in your cover letter that you have identified the rights holder, unless the book is in the public domain.
If you are interested in reading in the series, please submit via submittable.
Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers
Call for Submissions: May 1-July 31, 2025
Poets of Queens, in partnership with the storytelling series No, YOU Tell It!, seeks submissions for an anthology titled Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers, which Poets of Queens will publish in the spring of 2026.
The anthology is part of an ongoing project that includes a series of Prom Queens: Prom Story and Portrait Trading Workshops. During these free generative workshops, participants are invited to share their prom story through a series of written and visual prompts from Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons (No, YOU Tell It!) and Zach Rothman-Hicks (Gabbing with Gays).
Learn more about upcoming workshops and register at kellyjeanfitzsimmons.com/prom-queens.
Sharing prom stories allows us to find commonality within each other’s unique cultures and identities. The Prom Queens workshop and anthology aim to give voice to a diverse range of prom poems and stories instead of the prom myth polished by pop culture.
We are interested in:
Real people’s prom poems and stories instead of the “prom as everything” fairy tale created by prom-coms from the '80s and '90s.
Nontraditional prom narratives from queer, trans, non-binary, gay, bisexual, lesbian, gender-expansive, and intersex writers that reveal or confront the exclusion of teenagers who don’t match the binary image of prom king and queen.
“No Prom” poems and stories from the pandemic.
Post-pandemic prom poems and stories viewing prom night through the eyes of recent goers instead of the pop culture narratives written by adults looking back.
Guidelines:
We seek new prom poems and stories by writers from or about Queens, NY. Previously published work will not be considered.
Submissions will be open via Submittable from May 1, 2025, through July 31, 2025, or until we hit a cap of 350 submissions, whichever comes first.
Poets may submit up to three poems.
The word count for prose submissions is 1500–2000 words.
Please include a 50-word bio in your cover letter.
The honorarium will be one complimentary copy of the anthology. Contributors can also purchase additional copies at a discounted price.
Notifications will be made by September 3, 2025.
About the Editors:
Pichchenda Bao is a No, YOU Tell It! story coach and was the editor of the 2024 anthology Braving the Body, which was Small Harbor Publishing’s top-selling book of the year.
Timothy Lindner is a No, YOU Tell It! story coach and the editor of The Book of Life After Death: Essays & Poems, published in 2023 by Tolsun Books.