Submissions

Submissions Are Currently Closed
We expect to reopen submissions in March 2026.

Theme: Coping Mechanisms
Submission Deadline: October 1, 2025
Publication Date: January 9, 2026

Our first publication, Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age, focused on protest, resistance, survival, and hope in response to the rising authoritarianism of the Trump era in America.

For our next collection, the theme is Coping Mechanisms. The ways we endure, adapt, and hold on to our humanity in turbulent times. While the political climate of Trump’s second term will inevitably be in the background for many pieces, poems don’t need to be directly about him or current events.

We welcome the full spectrum of coping: from protest and public action to private rituals; from sharp satire to quiet resilience; from the ways you recharge or hold on to joy to the small acts of defiance that remind you who you are. Coping isn’t always pretty, and we’re just as interested in the messy side of it—the stress eating, the bad decisions, the unhealthy escapes—as we are in the mindful or restorative ones. Your work might be satirical, grief-filled, meditative, furious, hopeful, or all of these at once. Take the theme and run with it in whatever direction it leads you.

If it’s personal, let it be personal. If it’s loud, let it be loud. If it’s experimental or unconventional, bring it. If it surprises us, even better. Above all, if it feels urgent, human, and honest and speaks in some way to coping with the pressures of modern life, whether they stem from politics, family conflict, financial strain, housing insecurity, the challenges of raising children, navigating relationships, caring for aging parents, the climate crisis, workplace pressures, health concerns, or the daily weight of simply trying to keep going, we want to read it.

How to Submit

Send your submission to:
chaossectionpoetry [at] gmail [dot] com

Please include:

1–3 poems as a single .docx or PDF file
A short third-person bio (50–150 words)
Your name, exactly as you’d like it published
A quick note if any of the poems have been previously published

We prefer .docx files but will also accept PDF if needed to preserve your formatting.

Publication Timeline

Submission deadline is September 15, 2025. We’re aiming for a release in Winter 2025, most likely around the holiday season. With all the financial pressures, family gatherings, and commercial noise that come with that time of year, and the way those stresses connect to the larger political climate, it feels like the right moment for a book about how people cope.

Like Record of Dissent, this collection will be free to read, share, and download in its digital form, and will likely also be released as a paperback print edition for those who want a physical copy.

We read everything. If your work feels like a fit, we’ll follow up to finalize. If it doesn’t fit this round, we’ll still try to respond personally.

This is a passion project. At this time, we can’t offer payment for poetry, just a platform, some readers, and a little space to say what needs saying. Like most indie journals, we operate at a loss… and that’s okay. Nobody gets into the poetry publishing business to get rich.

A Note on Editing and Rights

We won’t edit your poem beyond basic formatting adjustments (fonts, spacing, layout). If anything else comes up, we’ll always check with you first.

You retain full rights to your work. After publication, you’re free to share or republish your poem wherever you like. If the poem was first published with us, we simply ask that you credit The Chaos Section Poetry Project (or the title of the new chapbook once it’s decided) as the original publisher.

Previously Published and Simultaneous Submissions

We will consider previously published work. If the poem appeared elsewhere first, no problem, just include prior publication credits when you submit, and we’ll make sure acknowledgments are listed in the chapbook.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but we try to work quickly and not leave you hanging in limbo for months. If you submit elsewhere, please just give us a heads-up if your work is accepted, so we can tell you congrats!

To stay in the loop, you can follow us on our Bluesky page, where we’ll post updates and project news.

— The Chaos Section Poetry Project