At Black Iris, we’re always looking for ways to speed poetry up and slow the news down. Poetry of Breaking News is an opportunity for poets to send us new work responding to anything that’s in the headlines right now (or a topic that SHOULD be in the headlines). You send us a poem, we publish it within 48 hours on our Instagram channel
How do I submit?
Send us a poem, a line (or link to a headline) about what your poem is responding to, and your insta handle if you have one to blackirispoetry@gmail.com . The window for submissions is from Mon 17 November 2025 to Fri 28 November 2025.
What can I submit?
Anything that’s a poem responding to current events. Slightly shorter poems tend to work best (definitely nothing that goes over the page, under 20 lines if possible, but that’s not a hard and fast rule).
Can I submit work that’s been previously published or self-published?
Nothing that’s been published in another magazine, collection, pamphlet or anthology. BUT if you’ve written a banging poem about something happening in the world and published it on your own social channels, we’re fine with that. Above all, this is about curating work that responds to the world as it is now, and often because poetry moves so bloody slowly, it’s hard to place poems that are written about what’s in the headlines right now. So we take a much more flexible approach with this (Note for the regular magazine issues, self-published work is not eligible).
How will my work be published?
It will appear on the Black Iris Insta Channel.
When will I hear back, if you select my work, when will you publish it?
Generally, we tend to respond within 24 hours, and publish within 48 hours.
What are you looking for?
Have a look at our previous issues to get a sense of what we look for, and our regular submission guidelines should give you a sense of our preferences.
