P – Blue Bottle Journal Seeking Submissions. No Theme.

Blue Bottle Journal is a Brisbane-based online publication seeking poetry that stings, work that burns us long after reading.

We are largely interested in new, emerging voices in the Australian poetry scene and abroad. Blue Bottle hopes to elevate marginalised voices including people of colour, queer, gender diverse, emerging, older and disabled poets. We are also open to work by established poets but will prioritise new names wherever possible. We hope to be a first or early publication for many ambitious poets, young or old.

We are particularly interested in work that is emotional rather than esoteric, for poems that pulse, writhe, and stick to our skin. A key focus of our catalogue to date has been based on the natural world, animals and land through ecocritical lenses. We also go bananas for poems that can be easily paired online with a gripping visual/are alive with colour and tone. Feel free to dip into our archives for examples of work we love.

Guidelines

Please email THREE POEMS MAX per submission round to bluebottlejournal@gmail.com ideally as a word doc rather than a pdf file. Please include a bio (50 words max) and your personal pronouns, along with any social media handles in the body of your email, so we have a general idea of who you are and how to promote you online.

Submissions are not anonymous, so feel free to include your name in your submission. We aim to get back to you with a response within 4-6 weeks, in some cases sooner and others longer, depending on our intake volume. We pride ourselves on our speedy response times.

All submitted poems should be previously unpublished (including on social media/personal blogs). We’d also greatly appreciate you taking the courtesy to credit our journal if you decide to republish your work elsewhere in future (and congrats if you do!).

Published pieces will also go up online on a rolling basis as they are sent through. Please note: we’re happy to accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know as soon as possible if your work is accepted elsewhere (again, congrats if it is!).

PLEASE NOTE: We are very pleased to now open up our submissions to past Blue Bottle contributors. We’re entering a new era of the journal where we’re happy to hear from some familiar faces and continue building the strength of our poetry catalogue into the future.

Also please be mindful that as we are a small unfunded journal we are unable to pay contributors at this time. We’d love to explore paid opportunities for our poets in future and will continue to seek out funding options.

We greatly look forward to reading your work. Hit us where it hurts.