Thanks for sharing your work with Rattle! All of our content comes from unsolicited submissions—we couldn't exist without you, and we want this process to be as easy and friendly as possible. For more information, see our full guidelines page.
Overview:
- Rattle publishes unsolicited poetry, translations, and book reviews.
- General submissions are open year-round, always welcomed, and always free.
- Rattle does not accept work that has been previously curated, in print or online—poems may be self-published on social media, blogs, or message boards, but cannot have been published in books, magazines, or similar collections open to the public. We want to be the first publisher to highlight the poems, but never want to discourage anyone from sharing their poems themselves. For more on this, read "Uncurated: The Case for a New Term of Art."
- Rattle does not accept work that has been predominantly generated by artificial intelligence. Poetry is a tool for expanding the human spirit, which means poems should be written by humans. It is possible to use A.I. toward that aim in some cases, so if used A.I. to assist in the writing process, please explain in the notes to your submission.
- Simultaneous submissions are encouraged.
- Contributors to the print magazine receive $200 and a complimentary one-year subscription. Poems for "Online" categories receive $100.
- All submissions are automatically considered for the annual Neil Postman Award for Metaphor, a $2,000 prize judged by the editors.
- Separate from general and themed (and always free) submissions, we also offer the annual $15,000 Rattle Poetry Prize and the Rattle Chapbook Prize—for each of those, a submission fee of $30 includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.
VERY IMPORTANT:
- Submissions cannot be revised after submission. Note that typos and minor changes never affect our decisions—proofreading is what editors are for. If you've made a significant mistake, use the internal messaging system to send a new file as an attachment.
- To withdraw a single poem from a submission of multiple poems, just log in, click on the submission, and send a message to let us know which you'd like removed. Do not withdraw the entire submission—if you do, the submission will no longer be active and we won't see it.
- Don't include any contact information in the file(s) that you submit. Your name and contact info will be included in the Submittable fields, and this will make it easier for us to read fairly.
For more detailed information about rights, rules, privacy, and payments for publication, see our full guidelines.
NOTE: Please don't query to ask if we have a reply to your submission yet. If the status says "received" or "in-progress," then it's received and in-progress. We always go as fast as we can, but we're only human and the submission flow waxes and wanes, so response times vary considerably.
The Rattle Poetry Prize is an entirely separate category from the others listed here, and because of the nature of the contest, some of the rules are different. Please read the following rules very carefully. Poems submitted to the contest cannot be considered for the theme issues—either they'll win the contest, be published in another open issue, or not at all.
1) The $30 entry fee is a one-year subscription to Rattle (or a one-year extension for subscribers) at our regular rate. Prior to May 1st, new subscriptions will start with the Summer 2025 issue, arriving in June. After May 1st, new subscriptions start with the Fall 2025 issue, arriving September 1st. Current subscribers will receive a one-year extension. Due to shipping costs, international entries through Submittable will receive a 3/4-year subscription (three issues) instead of the full year.
2) One $15,000 Winner and ten $500 Finalists will be selected in an anonymized review by the editors of Rattle and printed in the Winter 2025 issue; one $5,000 Readers’ Choice Award will then be chosen from among the finalists by subscriber and entrant vote.
3) Open to writers, worldwide; poems must be written primarily in English (no translations except by the original author). Rattle's winter issue must be a potential first curation for all works submitted—meaning they can't have appeared in any books, magazines, or similar collections, online or in print. No previously curated works, or works accepted for curation elsewhere. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but we must be notified immediately by sending a message through the submission if any poems are accepted elsewhere. Log into your account, click on the submission, and then the "messages" tab to send a message.
4) Do not include any identifying information within the file(s) that you submit—only include the poems (up to four). We will have all the contact information that you enter through Submittable's online form, and that's where we'll send the subscription.
5) Send up to four poems, either in a single file or four separate files. There are no line-limits. Poems may be any length, any style, or any subject. Multiple entries by a single poet are accepted, however each group of four poems must be treated as a separate entry, and an additional $30 fee. Each additional entry will add an extra year to your subscription. Contest entries are non-refundable, and can't be revised once they're submitted, so please be sure to upload your final versions of the poems. If you make a mistake while submitting and need to fix your submission, DO NOT withdraw the entry. Use the built-in messaging system to send a replacement file as a message on the submission.
6) Winners will be announced on September 15, 2025, and the Readers’ Choice Award Winner will be announced February 15, 2026. Additional entries may also be offered standard publication.
We like poems of any length. Try to send several poems as opposed to a single piece, but no more than four in a submission—up to four poems (or pages of short poems) may be included in a single file, in separate files, or pasted/typed into the text box provided on the next page. Do not include your name or contact info in the file/box with the poems. Do not make another submission in this category until we've replied.
We’re looking for previously unpublished poems that move us, that might make us laugh or cry, or teach us something new. We like both free verse and traditional forms—we try to publish a representative mix of what we receive. We read a lot of poems, and only those that are unique, insightful, and musical stand out—regardless of style. Since our issues include about 50 pages of poetry, one of the main things we’re looking for is diversity; we have enough room to be eclectic, and we plan on using it. So while most magazines suggest reading their back issues to get a sense of what they like to publish, we’d suggest reading to get a sense of what we’re having trouble finding—if you notice a style or subject matter that we don’t seem to be publishing, send us that!
Because of the nature of the traditional publication apparatus, poetry doesn't often respond in a timely way to current events—but we think it could. To test this hypothesis, we'd like to try publishing a poem online each Sunday (if we receive any that we like) that responds to a news story or public event from the previous week, and has been written in the time since.
Selected poems will appear as the Sunday poem at Rattle.com, with occasional extra poems Tuesday or Thursday, which are fed to over 10,000 people via our RSS feed and daily email service. Poets will receive $100 and a complimentary subscription to the print magazine.
The deadline for each week is Friday at midnight PST. The poems must respond to news that occurred in the previous week, and have been written in the time since.
Include a brief explanation as to what the poem is about. Feel free to submit to this category as often as you'd like, even within the same week, and even if you have other general, tribute, or contest submissions pending.
There's a long tradition of poetry responding to art (and vice versa), and we thought it would be fun to post these challenges. Every month we will post an image on our Ekphrastic Challenge page. Poets will then have one month to write a poem in response to that specific image.
After the deadline (the last day of each month), Rattle's series editor and the artist who provided the image will each select their favorite poem, which will be published online the next month. Submissions to this category will only be considered as responses to the single image posted for the current month. If your poem isn't written in response to that image, please use the General Poems category instead.
Our Spring 2026 issue will be dedicated to literary rebels—those poets who run counter to the literary mainstream. What that means is up to you. We want to hear from poets who publish in non-traditional ways, who hold unusual beliefs, who write what isn't popular, or feel that they don't fit in. If you've been shunned or canceled by the establishment, this is a chance to tell your story. The poems may be any length or subject, but should be rebellious in some way. We no longer publish essays, but always include a contributor notes section, where we ask in this case why you consider yourself a rebel.
Submit up to four previously uncurated poems (or four pages of very short poems) at the same time, either in a single file or up to four files. Do not include your name or contact info within the file(s) content.
NOTE: Submissions to this category are NOT considered for publication. There is no entry fee or payment for participating. To give everyone a chance, please do not enter if you've had worked critiqued here in the last year.
This is the entry portal for our monthly Critique of the Week. Every Friday at 4pm ET, Rattle's editor hosts a livestreamed poetry critique on YouTube and Facebook, offering suggestions and feedback. The viewing audience is encouraged to participate. The goal is to help us all become better poets through the honest sharing of our reactions, similar to the experience of an MFA roundtable workshop. Be sure to follow us on Facebook or subscribe on YouTube so that you don't miss the weekly critique.
Participants are reviewed at random and all entries are considered—but only one entry per person per year.
Include two poems to be critiqued with your entry here, but if you'd like to change them after you are chosen, you will be able to do so.
Note that videos will remain archived and viewable by the public for at least two weeks and then indefinitely until a participating poets request their video to be deleted.
If you'd also like to submit artwork, please use this category and submit up to six JPGs. Most often we only use art for our covers, which are full-bleed, 9" x 6". In order to publish a cover we will need a file with at least 300 ppi—but please submit smaller screen-res files (no larger than 1 MB each or so) for now, to keep the servers happy.
Our upcoming themes are as follows:
General issue - no deadline
Food - April 15th
Late Bloomers July 15th
Rebels January 15th
Artwork should somehow relate to the theme. We also prefer to have covers with vibrant colors, rather than black and white.
Artists receive $200 and a box of copies of the issue when it comes out.