June means the gates are open. We’re now accepting submissions for Selected Poetry: Autumn 2025, our unthemed digital poetry anthology, free to download, and edited by the piercing eyes of David Hanlon and Katie Jenkins.
This isn’t your average call for poems. We want work that’s lived a little. Poems that bite back, hold tension, or spill something real. The Selected Poetry anthologies are built on truth, clarity, and form that follows feeling, not fluff.
Submissions are free, but we’re not shy about saying a pay-what-you-want donation helps keep The Broken Spine alive and punching. Every penny goes towards future publications and to The Broken Spine Award 2025, for which we’re raising £5,000 (and we’re already over 30% of the way there).
This call is for poetry only. Unthemed, but not unfocused. Submit up to two original poems in a single file. We don’t spoon-feed style guides—your best bet is to read the kind of work David and Katie champion. It’s all right here on the Selected Poetry page, or better yet, download the Spring 2025 edition for free in our store. That’s the bar.
Fair warning: this is not the same vibe Alan selects for the slimline series, so if that’s your only touchpoint, recalibrate accordingly. You can read our broad guidelines here.
We keep it free to submit because we believe access matters. But if you’ve got a few quid, chipping in supports the award, the press, and everything we publish. We don’t take funding from dodgy arts councils or private gatekeepers. We run on passion, community, and a little help from friends.
Donate here – every bit gets us closer to that £5K target.
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The Broken Spine is a poetry and arts collective proudly published on the coastal edge of North-West England. Founded in 2019 by Alan Parry and Paul Robert Mullen – two school friends reunited after twenty years through a mutual love of poetry.
