Submissions
The Fig Tree is an online poetry publication, edited by Tim Fellows, that is open for submissions by email all year round. We publish about six times a year, with a featured poet in each issue in addition to ten poems selected from those submitted according to the guidelines below.
Submit up to 3 original poems in a single Word or PDF document called FigTreeSubmission.docx (or .doc or .pdf) attached to your email.
Do not include your name inside the Word/PDF document.
Each poem should start on a new page and have its title on the first line. Any standard font and font size is fine. Note that Substack has limited capability for formatting so centred and fully justified text may be difficult to reproduce.
The email should be sent to thefigtree<at>mail.com with the words Fig Tree Submission as the Subject of the email.
Note: Replace <at> with the ‘@’ symbol, which we’ve altered to avoid being found by spam robots. Also it is mail.com, not gmail.com!Maximum length for each poem is recommended at 40 lines - if you have a longer one and you’re really confident about it, feel free to send it anyway.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but let us know immediately if one of the submitted poems has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
No subjects are off limits, but any poems with discriminatory messaging will be rejected. Form is not important - rhymed or non-rhymed, strict meter or unmetered, fixed formats or free verse are all acceptable.
Poems should not have been published before in a book, pamphlet, anthology or third party online publication. Poems that have only appeared on your own website, blog, or on your social media are fine.
Translations are permitted, but you must have consent from the original author for it to be included. Poems not in English poems are also allowed, provided that a verifiable (even if basic) English translation is included (but may not necessarily be published)
Work submitted to and published by The Fig Tree should not be AI generated or AI edited.
We will consider creating an annual anthology if the interest is there. Authors retain full copyright.
Please also include a short third person biography (50 words max.) and we’d also like you to tell us who your favourite poet is and why. Put these in the body of the email along with the titles of your poems.
If you have a personal web site then you can also include a link to your site. We will aim to respond to all submissions within two to three weeks. If after that time you haven't heard from us let me know via email. We will let you know if you haven’t been selected, but we are unlikely to provide editorial/critical feedback.
Whether you’ve been accepted or not, leave it a few months before trying again to give everyone a chance. If we haven’t chosen one of your poems, it’s definitely not personal and we would encourage everyone to keep trying.
Note: When you submit to The Fig Tree, you are also agreeing for your poems to be considered for print publication. If you do not wish to be in a printed anthology, please let us know in your submission email, or any time before publication is announced.
Also, please subscribe to the site using the button below to get notifications of new issues.