Visual Poetry Series Submission Guidelines

*The Visual Poetry Series is currently on hiatus during the academic year of 2020-21. Please check back in the future.

Previous books in our visual poetry series include How to Tell If You Are Human: Diagram Poems by Jessy Randall, Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours by Bianca Stone, Book of No Ledge by Nance Van Winckel, and In Between: Poetry Comics by Mita Mahato. We have also published Sophia & The Boy Who Fell, a visual-literary collaboration between Sarah Nguyen and Traci Brimhall for young audiences. All volumes in the Visual Poetry Series are printed in full-color editions and are distributed widely by LSU Press. The reading fee for submissions during this period is $20 and all those who pay this fee will receive a book from the Visual Poetry Series of their choosing.

We are open to any and all interpretations of “visual poetry” — collages, comics, erasures, obliteratures, illustrated creative writing, etc., etc. We define the word “poetry” broadly and loosely when it comes to this series. Surprise us! Your manuscript should be a minimum of 60 pages and can be as long as you like.

We can accept .doc, .docx, and .pdf files. When saving your file, please choose to save as the smallest possible file size, so our servers don’t become overwhelmed by large files. (If we choose to publish your book, we’ll request high-resolution files at that time.)

*Please note that Pleiades Press can only accept submissions through our online submissions manager–please do not mail or email a submission, though if you have an extenuating circumstance, please email press director Jenny Molberg to query.

To submit your visual poetry manuscript please complete the following two steps:

  1. Go HERE (to the University of Central Missouri online marketplace) to pay the $20 reading fee.
  2. After you have paid your fee, go to pleiadessubmissions.com to upload your manuscript to our submission manager. Please put your order number in the comments fields of the submission manager. If you wish to receive a book from the Visual Poetry Series, please also indicate the title of the book you would like to receive and the mailing address we should send it to in the comments field as well. (We will mail books out in August at the end of this open reading period.) Please choose from the following books: How to Tell If You Are Human: Diagram Poems by Jessy Randall, Book of No Ledge by Nance Van Winckel, In Between: Poetry Comics by Mita Mahato, or Sophia & The Boy Who Fell by Traci Brimhall and Sarah Nguyen. *Unfortunately, we are not able to mail Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours by Bianca Stone at this time.