Softblow is an online literary journal. They are based out of Singapore but they publish only English language poetry. They publish work by only three poets every month. Softblow usually publishes 3-5 poems per poet, and they are placed on the same page, underneath the Author’s biography.
Softblow is a great place to be published because a lot of good, established poets have had work published there. It is nice because they often will accept all the poems that you submit or request more so that they can showcase not just one of your poems, but an array that gives readers a better idea of your style overall.
They publish 12 times a year on the first day of every month. However once your work has been accepted they post it online immediately, but it is not featured on the main page until the edition you are in comes out. It is really satisfying to see your work online so quickly, and to be able to share it with your friends right away even though it is usually months before the general public can see it.
Softblow respond to most submissions within three days. This means that if they do accept your work it could be up on their website within three days, or less. Recently a friend’s work was accepted and published within twenty-four hours.
Softblow has an acceptance rate of under four percent, so they are rather discriminating. They are easy to submit to though. Their email address is listed in the Editorial section of the site. Just paste a short biographical statement and 4-6 poems into the body of an email.
The Editors tend to be interested in poems that have interesting, image filled language. They also like poems that contain a central idea. They do not generally publish poems that rhyme. They also to accept prose-poems, poems that do not contain line breaks or stanza breaks.
In conclusion Softblow is a great journal to submit to because they have a quick response time, and they post your poems without any additional delay. They also are discriminating and have a long history of publishing established poets early on in their careers. You can visit their website here: www.softblow.org.
