Up the Staircase is an online journal open to submissions of poetry, reviews, and interviews, for their 31st issue until the 15th of October. A lot of journals are closed to submissions during the summer, and so it is always nice to find one that accepts submissions during the slow summer months.
They publish four issues a year. They ask that you only submit once per quarter. They respond to all submissions very quickly, usually within two weeks. If you have not heard from them after a month, please query.
They pair the poems they publish with well chosen art and also sometimes with audio recordings of the poet reading their poem. Their website is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing.
It is easy to get a feeling for the work they publish by reading an issue. The poetry they publish tends to be clear and contain strong visual images, even if there is an element of ambiguity to it.
Up the Staircase nominates poems that they publish for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net.
All submissions are accepted via email. Please submit 3-5 poems at a time. You can also submit book and art reviews, art, and interviews for publication consideration.
They do not accept reprints but will consider work that is simultaneously submitted. They accept less than 5% of the work that is submitted to them.
To learn more you can visit their website here.
