PRISM international publishes exciting, original material from established and emerging writers in Canada and around the world. Due to the high volume of submissions, we receive each month, reply times range from 6 – 12 months, depending on the time of year. Please note: PRISM does not accept submissions from current and incoming students and faculty of the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program (this includes the UBC Optional-Residency MFA Program). Work submitted by incoming students prior to their acceptance to the UBC Creative Writing Program, if still under consideration, must be withdrawn. In order to submit, UBC alumni cannot have taken a UBC Creative Writing Program course during the previous two years. PRISM does not publish the same writer twice in a publication year. For contest entries, please refer to our contest page.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We strongly encourage submissions from Indigenous writers, Black writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ writers, and writers from other intersectional and marginalized groups, including low-income earners. If you identify as one or more of the above and would like to let us know, please mention it in your cover letter.

Title the document with your first and last and last name. Example: FirstNameLastName.doc.

Submit up to four poems, maximum of six pages. 

We welcome cross-genre, hybrid, and interdisciplinary poetry and poetics.

In your cover letter, please specify the number of poems you are submitting and list the titles of the poems.

Poetry submissions should be typed and single-spaced. If you would like to submit poems with alternate spacing, please mention it in your cover letter and submit a PDF instead of a Word document.

Include in your cover letter your full contact information (including email address) and a short bio.

All submissions should be set in Times New Roman, 12-point font.

We charge a $3.00 reading fee per submission. Writers for whom the $3.00 fee is prohibitive are welcome to submit via the Inclusive Access option on Submittable.

Submissions must be previously unpublished, in print and online.

We accept simultaneous submissions. If your piece is accepted elsewhere, please let us know immediately.

We purchase first North American serial rights, and pay $40/printed page for prose and $45/printed page for poetry. Contributors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.

The editorial board awards one $500 prize to an outstanding poetry contributor each year.

We mainly accept submissions through Submittable. If you are unable to submit via Submittable, please get in touch with Dora Prieto at prismpoetry@gmail.com.

Translation

Prism welcomes the best of translation into English from all over the world and offers compensation and contributor copies to original authors as well as the translators. Let us know if you’d like to see sample translator and original author contracts to get an idea of the information that we require. Such works must be undertaken with the permission of the original author. Please include a copy of the original work with your submission.

Poetry Translations

We pay $45/printed page plus two mailed contributor copies, and $30/printed page to the original author plus two mailed contributor copies. PRISM may choose to publish original poems alongside translations, and this will be up to the editor to decide on a case-by-case basis.

Prose Translations 

We pay $40/printed page for prose translations plus two mailed contributor copies, and $25 per printed page to the original author up to $200 to the original authors plus two mailed contributor copies.