The American Poets Continuum Series will open from April 1 - April 30, 2024. (currently closed)
*Please note that unsolicited manuscripts sent outside of the open reading period will be recycled without response. BOA does not publish novels. Thank you.
The American Poets Continuum Series celebrates new collections of poetry by distinguished mid-career poets. Poets who have previously published a full-length book of poetry with a traditional publisher are eligible to submit to the American Poets Continuum Series via solicitation or during an open reading period. Open reading periods depend on our editorial calendar and are announced online via BOA's social media feeds and email newsletter.
Only paper submissions will be accepted. Please see the guidelines below for details.
Submission Guidelines:
WE DO NOT ACCEPT ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS FOR THE AMERICAN POETS CONTINUUM SERIES AT ANY TIME.
POETS MUST HAVE ALREADY PUBLISHED A FULL-LENGTH POETRY BOOK.
- Submit only one book-length, complete manuscript at a time. If two manuscripts are sent, both will be recycled.
- Minimum of 65 pages of poetry (not including Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, etc.), and maximum of 120 pages of poetry.
- Manuscript text should be at least 12 pt. font.
- Manuscript pages should be one-sided.
- Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with sufficient return postage.
- Simultaneous submissions are okay. Note simultaneous submissions in your cover letter and notify BOA immediately should your submission be accepted elsewhere.
- Include a cover letter. Do not include a résumé or vitae.
- Include title, publisher, and publication year of previous full-length poetry collections you have published.
- Please note that manuscripts will be recycled, not returned.
- There is no submission fee associated with this reading period.
- No AI-assisted submissions.
Manuscript submissions may be mailed to:
ATTN: Poetry Submission.
BOA Editions, Ltd.
ATTN: Poetry Submission
250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306
Rochester, NY 14607
Series Titles
The Dug-Up Gun Museum, Matt Donovan
Little Mr. Prose Poem: Selected Poems of Russell Edson, ed. Craig Morgan Teicher
A Tinderbox in Three Acts, Cynthia Dewi Oka
Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, Chen Chen
A Season in Hell with Rimbaud, Dustin Pearson
Field Notes from the Flood Zone, Heather Sellers
Useful Junk, Erika Meitner
A Cluster of Noisy Planets, Charles Rafferty
Diamonds, Camille Guthrie
Ceive, B.K. Fischer
Tenderness, Derrick Austin
The Naomi Letters, Rachel Mennies
I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World, Kendra DeColo
Welcome to Sonnetville, New Jersey, Craig Morgan Teicher
Mother Country, Elana Bell
Letters to a Young Brown Girl, Barbara Jane Reyes
Caw, Michael Waters
How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton, edited by Aracelis Girmay
Brand New Spacesuit, John Gallaher
Year of the Dog, Deborah Paredez
Let's Become a Ghost Story, Rick Bursky
Rue, Kathryn Nuernberger
On the Shores of Welcome Home, Bruce Weigl
Cyborg Detective, Jillian Weise
The Human Half, Deborah Brown
Night Angler, Geffrey Davis
All Its Charms, Keetje Kuipers
The Tiny Journalist, Naomi Shihab Nye
In Country, Hugh Martin
Dresses from the Old Country, Laura Read
Clues from the Animal Kingdom, Christopher Kennedy
Holy Moly Carry Me, Erika Meitner
The Second O of Sorrow, Sean Thomas Dougherty
The Smoke of Horses, Charles Rafferty
All Soul Parts Returned, Bruce Beasley
Sky Country, Christine Kitano
Bye-Bye Land, Christian Barter
The Trembling Answers, Craig Morgan Teicher
Primitive: The Art and Life of Horace H. Pippin, Janice Harrington
Mandatory Evacuation, Peter Makuck
The End of Pink, Kathryn Nuernberger
The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech, Stephen Dobyns
Whereso, Karen Volkman
Celestial Joyride, Michael Waters
the black maria, Aracelis Girmay
Beautiful Wall, Ray Gonzalez
Antidote for Night, Marsha de la O
I’m No Longer Troubled by the Extravagance, Rick Bursky
Testament, G.C. Waldrep
Why God Is a Woman, Nin Andrews
Fanny Says, Nickole Brown
In a Landscape, John Gallaher
The Chair: Prose Poems, Richard Garcia
Copia, Erika Meitner
All You Ask for Is Longing: New and Selected Poems 1994-2014, Sean Thomas Dougherty
The Keys to the Jail, Keetje Kuipers
There’s a Box in the Garage You Can Beat with a Stick, Michael Teig
No Need of Sympathy, Fleda Brown
Birth Marks, Jim Daniels
The Book of Goodbyes, Jillian Weise
Refuge, Adrie Kusserow
Theophobia, Bruce Beasley
To Keep Love Blurry, Craig Morgan Teicher
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton: 1965-2010
The Reindeer Camps and Other Poems, Barton Sutter
True Faith, Ira Sadoff
Kingdom Animalia, Aracelis Girmay
The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home, Janice N. Harrington
Gospel Night, Michael Waters
Transfer, Naomi Shihab Nye
Ennui Prophet, Christopher Kennedy
Your Father on the Trains of Ghosts, G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher
Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line, Sean Thomas Dougherty
Burning of the Three Fires, Jeanne Marie Beaumont
Diwata, Barbara Jane Reyes
Chaos Is the New Calm, Wyn Cooper
Long Lens: New and Selected Poems, Peter Makuck
Cool Auditor, Ray Gonzalez
Sharp Stars, Sharon Bryan
Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone, Matthew Shenoda
Carpathia, Cecilia Woloch
And, Michael Blumenthal
Struggling Times, Louis Simpson
The Heaven-Sent Leaf, Katy Lederer
The Moon Makes Its Own Plea, Wendy Mnookin
Voices, Lucille Clifton
Elephants and Butterflies, Alan Michael Parker
The Fortieth Day, Kazim Ali
Nomina, Karen Volkman
Sleeping with Houdini, Nin Andrews
Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death, Christopher Kennedy
Disclamor, G.C. Waldrep
Peeping Tom’s Cabin: Comic Verse 1928-2008, X. J. Kennedy
Broken Hallelujahs, Sean Thomas Dougherty
Slope of the Child Everlasting, Laurie Kutchins
The Persistence of Objects, Richard Garcia
Darling Vulgarity, Michael Waters
The Burning of Troy, Richard Foerster
Woman Crossing a Field, Deena Linett
Splendor, Steve Kronen
Not for Specialists: New and Selected Poems, W.D. Snodgrass
The Hoopoe’s Crown, Jacqueline Osherow
Off-Season in the Promised Land, Peter Makuck
Consideration of the Guitar: New and Selected Poems 1986-2005, Ray Gonzalez
You & Yours, Naomi Shihab Nye
Postcards from the Interior, Wyn Cooper
American Children, Jim Simmerman
The Rooster’s Wife, Russell Edson
Angels for the Burning, David Mura
Farewell to the Starlight in Whiskey, Barton Sutter
Model Homes, Wayne Koestenbaum
Mercy, Lucille Clifton
Curious Conduct, Jeanne Marie Beaumont
Desire Lines: New and Selected Poems, Lola Haskins
Bright Hunter, Mark Irwin
The Orchard, Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Precipitates, Debra Kang Dean
Late, Cecilia Woloch
Is, Wayne Dodd
The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems 1940-2001, Louis Simpson
Life Watch, Willis Barnstone
Love Song with Motor Vehicles, Alan Michael Parker
Dumb Luck, Sam Hamill
The Guests at the Gate, Anthony Piccione
Mules of Love, Ellen Bass
The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande, Ray Gonzalez
What He Took, Wendy Mnookin
Double Going, Richard Foerster
Tulip Farms and Leper Colonies, Charles Harper Webb
Book of My Nights, Li-Young Lee
Small Gods of Grief, Laure-Anne Bosselaar
A. Poulin, Jr. Selected Poems, Edited with an Introduction by Michael Waters
Jam, Joe-Anne McLaughlin
Rancho Notorious, Richard Garcia
Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems, Michael Waters
Smoke, Dorianne Laux
Tell Me, Kim Addonizio
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems: 1988-2000, Lucille Clifton
Laugh at the End of the World: Collected Comic Poems 1969-1999, Bill Knott
White City, Mark Irwin
The Tiger Iris, Joan Swift
Dusty Angel, Michael Blumenthal
Living Is What I Wanted: Last Poems, David Ignatow
To Get Here, Wendy Mnookin
The Vandals, Alan Michael Parker
We Didn’t Come Here for This, William B. Patrick
Cabato Sentora, Ray Gonzalez
Plus Shipping, Bob Hicok
Diana, Charles, & the Queen, William Heyen
Gratitude, Sam Hamill
Fuel, Naomi Shihab Nye
Trillium, Richard Foerster
At My Ease: Uncollected Poems of the Fifties and Sixties, David Ignatow
Radiography, Bruce Bond
The Night Path, Laurie Kutchins
Against Distance, Peter Makuck
Green Ash, Red Maple, Black Gum, Michael Waters
Jimmy & Rita, Kim Addonizio
The Heat of Arrivals, Ray Gonzalez
The Terrible Stories, Lucille Clifton
I Have Tasted the Apple, Mary Crow
Quick, Now, Always, Mark Irwin
Crazy Horse in Stillness, William Heyen
These Upraised Hands, William B. Patrick
The Quicken Tree, Bill Knott
For the Kingdom, Anthony Piccione
The Fuehrer Bunker: The Complete Cycle, W.D. Snodgrass
Song, Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Red Suitcase, Naomi Shihab Nye
What We Carry, Dorianne Laux
Wordworks: Poems Selected and New, Richard Kostelanetz
Each in His Season, W.D. Snodgrass
The Book of Names: New and Selected Poems, Barton Sutter
Nobody Lives on Arthur Godfrey Boulevard, Gerald Costanzo
Shenandoah and Other Verse Plays, Delmore Schwartz
John Logan: The Collected Fiction
Quilting: Poems 1987-1990, Lucille Clifton
The City in Which I Love You, Li-Young Lee
The Sunken Lightship, Peter Makuck
Isabella Gardner: The Collected Poems
John Logan: The Collected Poems
Roxa: Voices of the Culver Family, William B. Patrick
Next: New Poems, Lucille Clifton
Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980, Lucille Clifton
Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems
Seeing It Was So, Anthony Piccione
Duhamel: Ideas of Order in Little Canada, Bill Tremblay
Yin, Carolyn Kizer
People Live Here: Selected Poems 1949-1983, Louis Simpson
Signatures, Joseph Stroud
The Bridge of Change: Poems 1974-1980, John Logan
Things That Happen Where There Aren’t Any People, William Stafford
That Was Then: New and Selected Poems, Isabella Gardner
Not Just Any Death, Michael Waters
Living With Distance, Ralph J. Mills, Jr.
She, M.L. Rosenthal
The Fuhrer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress, W.D. Snodgrass