For our purposes a long poem is anything over one side of A4 - or more than 50-60 lines. The sort of length most poetry magazines would avoid. They could be up to any length - but if they were book length, and we liked them enough to publish, we would probably ask to serialise.

Due to the success of the magazine, we have had to come up with some new "rules" - some of which may seem bizarre or random to you, but!!!

Here Goes...

Our submission times are January 25th - April 15th and July 25th - October 15th each year. Please don't submit outside these times as your poems might not get read.

A quick summary of the rules then 

  • only 2 poems maximum submission  
  • must be over 50 lines
  • ensure your poems are saved as .doc files - please ensure that if you have windows 2007 you save your file as windows 2003 as we cannot at the moment open files with .docx 
  • Put your name and title on them and save them as something like joebloggs.doc rather than longpoem.doc 
  • email them to mail@longpoemmagazine.org.uk as .doc files

  • only submit in the submission season

    The spirit of 'long' is probably more important than line length however - by which we don't mean it doesn't have to be long - but it also needs substance. 

    Mimi Khalvati writes: The long poem is as much a space in which to flex one's muscles, grapple with problems, identify weaknesses, as it is to mine rich seams, give sway to obsessions and vent to narrative.

    Ask - does your poem have a 'big' heart? Or, are its ambitions more normal? 

    The 4 Editors all close-read your submissions - so please don't send more than 2 poems to be considered for any one issue. 

    We also invite pitches for the main article/essay in the magazines and for book reviews on the website.