Many of these markets pay poets, and accept other genres of writing, too. Not all of them are currently open to submissions, but most are. Also see this article for more literary magazines accepting poetry. For poets honing their manuscripts, this article on 72 poetry manuscript publishers that do not charge a reading fee might be helpful.
This list is divided into two: poetry markets, and poetry competitions/ grants/fellowships with upcoming deadlines, with grants up to $50,000. For competitions, some prizes also include publication, which is not detailed here.
Poetry Markets
Augur
They accept poetry, fiction, flash fiction and graphic narrative that is dream-touched realism, slipstream, fabulism, magical realism, or ‘literary’ speculative fiction. They accept YA and adult pieces. Submit up to five poems, or up to 10 pages of poetry, and up to four pieces if submitting across genre lines (e.g. one short story, three poems). They are open to submissions until 28 February 2018. They pay CAD20 per poem, CAD0.02/word for short fiction, CAD20/page for graphic fiction (up to CAD100) and CAD25 for flash fiction. Details here.
Lambada Literary’s Poetry Spotlight
They want work of any style and subject to be featured on their site each week—poems need not have queer content, but all submitting authors should self-identity as queer. Send up to five poems, of up to 10 pages. Contributors are paid a small honorarium. Submissions close on 13 March 2018. Details here.
Tin House: Unthemed; Poison
They accept poetry, fiction and essays. Send up to five poems. Their reading period for the print publication will be 1-31 March 2018, when they will read for their unthemed issue, as well as the fall issue, on the theme of Poison – think poison pens, people, and places; toxic foods, drugs, and relationships; and other banes of our existence. Details here. Submissions for Tin House Online are open for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, comics, and more. Submit up to three poems. Details here.
SubTerrain: Margins
They welcome work by both emerging and established writers, and from underrepresented writers. Submissions for their themed issue, Margins, will open on 26 March, and they accept unsolicited poetry only for their themed issues. Send up to five poems on the theme. They also publish fiction, creative nonfiction, and commentary. There is no charge for mailed submissions. Pay is CAD50 per poem, and CAD0.10 for prose, up to CAD500. Details here.
Notre Dame Review
They publish fiction, poetry, criticism, and art, and are especially interested in work that takes on big issues. Writers are paid a small gratuity on publication. Submissions will close on 31 March 2018. Details here.
Epoch
Apart from poetry, they also publish literary fiction, essays, screenplays and graphic fiction. They consider all forms of poetry, including the long poem. Send up to five poems. Submissions are open until 15 April 2018, and they only accept mailed submissions. Payment varies each year; currently it is a minimum of $50 per poem and $150 for short stories. Details here.
Nashville Review
They accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction, literary comics and translations from both emerging and established writers. They read all kinds of poetry, and publish tight formalism alongside sprawling, experimental work. Send them up to 3 poems per reading period, and 2 poems if they are translations. Their next submission window will open in May. They pay $25 per poem and song selection, and $100 for prose. Details here.
The New Quarterly
They publish Canadian writers and writing, and submissions need to be mailed. They publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and several columns on the writing life. They accept all kinds of poetry – free verse, ballad, sonnet, epic and prose poems. Send up to three poems. They pay CAD40 per poem or postscript story, and CAD250 for a short story or nonfiction entry. Details here.
The Deaf Poets Society
This is an online literary journal that publishes poetry, prose, cross-genre work, reviews of Deaf or disability-focused books, interviews/miscellany, and art by D/deaf and/or disabled writers and artists, including neurodivergent artists and those in chronic pain. They want narratives about the D/deaf and/or disabled experience that complicate or undo the dominant and marginalizing rhetoric about deafness or disability. They particularly want to highlight work that investigates the complexity of the experience across identities. Send up to three poems. Pay fluctuates with each issue, and has been $15 for the last few issues. Details here.
Ryga: A journal of provocations
The journal honors the work of George Riga, and they accept poetry, prose and short plays that coincide with their editorial mission. Payment is CAD100 for submissions. Details here.
Poetry Salzburg Review
This Austrian magazine publishes poems, translations, interviews, essays and reviews of recent collections of poetry. Send four to six poems. They do not accept unsolicited reviews but do accept reviewer applications. Pay is a contributor copy. They seem to accept mailed submissions only. Details here.
Inside the Bell Jar
They accept poetry, short stories and flash fiction of any genre. The only requirement is that the writing be related to mental illness in some way. This can be in a character, the general theme, something about the setting. Poems can be up to 40 lines. They pay £5 per poem or short story. There is no payment for flash fiction. Details here.
Goblin Fruit
They want poetry “of the fantastical”, which treats mythic, surreal, fantasy and folkloric themes, or approaches other themes in a fantastical way. They do not want science fiction poetry, horror for horror’s sake, and poems that are self-consciously gothic. Pay is $15 for poems. Details here.
The Louisville Review
They accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction and drama submissions. Send up to five poems. For The Children’s Corner feature, they accept work from students is grades K-12. Details here.
The Bare Life Review
Apart from poetry, they also publish fiction, nonfiction and translations by refugee and immigrant writers, and pay well. They only accept work from foreign-born writers living in the US, and writers living abroad who currently hold refugee status. The work may, but need not, deal explicitly with issues of immigration, exile, or refuge. Submissions are not currently open; keep an eye out for their next reading period. Send 3-5 poems, of up to 10 pages. They pay $400 for accepted poems, $1,000 for prose. Details here.
Poetry competitions, grants and fellowships
Poetry Matters Literary Prize
These are poetry prizes in four categories: for middle school students, high school students, adults (20-60 years), and senior poets (aged 61 and above). Send up to thee poems. Prizes are
$75, $50, $35 and $25 in each category, and the deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
9th Annual Spirit First Poetry Contest
Poetry submissions may be of any length and any style but must have a theme of Meditation or Mindfulness. Poems may reflect any discipline, any faith, or none. Send up to three poems. Prizes are
$200, $150, and $100, and the deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Lunch Ticket: The Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts
This award is for a translated work, including poetry (up to 10 pages of poems). Authors should include the original work with the translation, and write on the translation process. The prize is $200, and the deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Black Caucus of American Library Association Awards
This is for the best self-published ebook by an African American author in the US in fiction and poetry genres. The prize is $500 in each category, and the deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Cha: Auditory Cortex – A Poetry Contest
This prize, run by the Hong Kong-based literary journal Cha, is for poets who write in a ‘variety’ of Englishes and celebrates the varied voices across Englishes. Each poet can submit up to two poems on any theme (up to 40 lines each, accompanied by a recording of the author’s reading in WAV format). Poems must be written and read in the author’s local variety of English (e.g. Brunei English, Burmese English, Chinese English, Fijian English, Filipino English, Guamanian English, Hawaiian English, etc.) in a way that is also accessible to other speakers of English in Asia. The prizes are HKD500, HKD300, HKD200, and there are 8 prizes of HKD100. The deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Speculative Literature Foundation’s Working Class Writers Grant
This is a grant for writers of speculative literature who come from a working class, blue-collar, poor or homeless backgrounds (see guidelines). The writing sample may be of unpublished or published writing, including poetry (up to 10 pages). This grant may be received anonymously or pseudonymously. The grant is $750, and the deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Creative Capital Grants
Creative Capital is an impact-driven arts organization that supports adventurous artists across the US through various means, including funding. For this cycle, they are inviting applications for 34 disciplines, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, playwriting and performance art. Most projects they fund have a 3-5 year lifetime. Applicants must have professional experience of at least 5 years.
Initial support level is $10,000 each; including follow-up monetary support, a project can get as much as $50,000 in the life cycle of the award. The deadline is 28 February 2018. Details here.
Honeysuckle Chapbook Contest: Poetry and Prose
The contest is in two chapbook categories, poetry and prose (20-40 pages for each category). They want boundary-breaking chapbooks that evoke remarkable and human truths, work that disrupts traditional narratives, and which holds new and daring worlds. They value intention and risk. The prizes are $500, and jam. The deadline is 1 March 2018. Details here.
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
This is for African-American poets. Submit a book-length poetry manuscript of approximately 60-90 pages. The prize is $500, and the deadline is 1 March 2018. Details here.
Christopher Tower Poetry Competition
This is for UK students aged 16-18. Send one poem, on the theme of Secrets. The prizes are £3,000, £1,500, £500, and there are three prizes of £250. The deadline is 2 March 2018. Details here.
National Endowment for the Arts
The NEA offers grants to several creative writers in the US each year to buy time for writing, with poetry and prose grants accepted in alternate years. Applications are now being accepted for literature fellowships of poetry; poets who have published a full-length work or work in literary magazines (see guidelines) can apply. The grants are for $25,000, and the deadline is 7 March 2018. Details here.
Cave Canem Residency
This is a residency in historic Chestertown, Maryland. Cave Canem’s mission is to serve as “a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.” The prize is $1,000, and residency. The deadline is 15 March 2018 (postmarked). Details here.
Elizabeth So Finish-Your-Book Fellowship
The goal of the fellowship is to afford two writers the time and solitude to help finish a book that is already in progress, including a poetry manuscript (at least 30 pages). There are two fellowships, one for writers who are immigrants in the US, either documented or undocumented, and another is for an Indigenous writer with significant ties to Montana. The prize includes stay at Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas. The prize is $500 food stipend, $400 airfare and residency. The deadline is 25 March 2018. Details here.
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest
Submit one humor poem, up to 250 lines. The prizes are $1,000, $250, and 10 prizes of $100. The deadline is 1 April 2018. Details here.
2018 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Travel Fellowship
This is for emerging (unpublished or minimally published) translators of poetry and prose, to help them pay for hotel and travel expenses to the annual ALTA conference (October 31 – November 3, 2018 in Bloomington, IN). Among the fellowships is the Jansen Fellowship, which is preferentially awarded to an emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language. Send up to 10 pages of translated work. The prize is $1,000, and the deadline is 16 April 2018. Details here.
Coalition of Texas with Disabilities
Submit a poem, short story, nonfiction, or graphic narrative with disability as the theme, or include a major character with disability. They accept previously published work and simultaneous submissions. It is open to all writers. The deadline is 4 September 2018, and the grand prize is $500, with $100 as divisional prizes. Details here.
