Guidelines

Melancholy Hyperbole is interested in poetry about longing. This can mean anything from unrequited lust to the loss of a pet. Whatever the subject matter, it must not be boring or corny. Send us your best work.

What we like: free verse poetry, prosetry, micro poetry, collaborations.

We are not interested in: political poetry, previously published poetry, reprints.

We may consider: form poetry if you can make us forget it’s form, rhyme if it works well.

If you want to know more about what makes us tick, check out our Six Questions interview.

Note: Regardless of the current theme, we are always open to regular submissions. Guidelines for regular and themed submissions are the same unless otherwise noted.

ATTENTION: Melancholy Hyperbole is on hiatus until further notice. We are responding to current submissions, so have no fear if you already have something pending with us. We will still post occasional book reviews. We will reopen to submissions.

Send 1-3 poems pasted into the body of the email, no more than 40 lines each, to melancholyhyperbole at gmail dot com. Use “Submission (your last name)” as the subject, and take note that NO ATTACHMENTS will be accepted. Such submissions will be deleted upon receipt without being opened. Include a cover letter and a short third-person bio (up to 60 words). Limit your previous publication credits, if you have them, to three. Only send one submission at a time. We may reject you without question if you do not follow these guidelines.

If we don’t accept your work don’t feel disheartened. Keep writing and try us again; we only ask that you either allow one month to pass, or wait until the next theme begins, before you send your new submission.

Upon acceptance we reserve the right to fix any spelling errors without notifying the poet unless we are questioning your word choice. Typos do happen and some are more confusing than others. We also reserve the right to modify punctuation if that is needed. We ask for First North American Serial Rights. All rights revert to the author after publication with us, though we’d appreciate if you’d mention us as first publisher in the future.

Also take note that while we are not snobs, the fastest way to turn us off is by utilizing poor grammar. We read so much poetry that may have been great but for poor grammar; please take the time to double-check yourself if you are unsure about what you’ve written. We like Grammar Girl: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

We have day jobs and may take several weeks to respond. Patience is appreciated. If you have not heard back in the span of one month feel free to query; likely we will respond sooner than that. We know how hard it is to wait and therefore simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as we receive immediate notification of your poem’s acceptance elsewhere.

Thanks for your interest and good luck! We look forward to reading your work.

Question or comment? Feel free to use the contact form below. *Do not use this form to send submissions: they will be rejected.*