Where Words Matter
a poetry journal
Bloodroot submission guidelines
How to submit:
We accept submissions via email: wordsmatter@bloodroot.online. The word “submission” in subject line followed by your last name: Ex: “submission Jones.”
What to Send:
• A very brief cover letter containing your name and contact information with your most recent email.
• 3-5 poems totaling no more than 8 pages
• All poems in a single, typed document (.doc, .docx) Please make sure NO personal identifying information appears anywhere on your manuscript submission itself including headers and footers.
• Unpublished work only (We don't accept any previously published work, including work that has appeared anywhere online or in social media posts.)
• Send a brief bio no longer than 70 words.
• We do accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you withdraw your poem or poems promptly if accepted elsewhere.
• Your best version. We cannot accept revisions once you submit.
Our aesthetic:
We're interested in what you see in this world, and perhaps it will be startling or, perhaps, quietly profound. If you did not surprise yourself at least once while writing your poem, it may not be one of your best poems.
We welcome all styles of well-crafted writing and admire poems written “in response to…” that engage in the world around the poet—-poems that are more than solipsistic writing—-for instance, poetry in conversation with other forms of artistic creation including painting, films, and other literature or in response to social issues, historical figures and events, or defining moments of transformation in human existence. That said, we would not turn down an excellent poem of any stripe.
We do not seek poems that are political diatribes of any sort or rambling work (philosophical or otherwise) that demonstrates none of the facets of poetic discourse such as figurative language and imagery.
No Artificial Intelligence (AI) Content
We expect eclectic preferences among our editors. We select poems on their own merits not by the “bios” of poets.
We build our journal in a manner consistent with poems, and artwork, speaking to one another.
Bloodroot poetry journal 