This strand of The Broken Spine includes both our Thematic Slimline Poetry Anthologies and #PoemsAbout, our weekly social-led poetry initiative hosted on Bluesky.

We’re looking for narrative poetry — free verse or blank verse — that’s inventive, emotionally resonant, and grounded in craft. Poems should engage directly with the announced theme, using language that challenges, unsettles, or lingers. We favour work with a strong sense of voice, image, and purpose. Avoid cliché. Internal rhyme is acceptable only if it serves the poem. We do not publish visual or concrete form poetry.

#PoemsAbout is open every week. A theme is posted each Sunday (or Saturday via our newsletter). You then have until the following Thursday at midnight to share your poem on Bluesky using the hashtags. On Saturdays, we also release seven optional, more focused prompts. We and the wider poetry community engage with your work throughout the week — reading, sharing, and offering feedback in a safe and generous space. Select poems from this initiative may be shared more widely and are eligible for our Annual Reader’s Choice Prize.

For print opportunities, submission links will appear here when open. Each call includes a clear theme and deadline. A fee of £3 applies to print submissions, which helps sustain the press. Contributors receive 50% off any print publication they appear in, plus delivery.

Detailed Submission Guidelines

Soot & Boots: Festive Short Fiction
Submit March 1 – April 30