How to find out about Poetry Submission Windows

Hey all, what a way to end a year. Brexit is coming, Tories are gobbling up the fat of the land, and lots of us are vulnerable. We need poetry right now, and poetry is under threat. I currently work in an underfunded library which is no longer buying from independent publishers, so we get hardly any new poetry books (but you can donate them, to help out, and you can request them to show the big suppliers we don't just want James Patterson books).

I follow Maggie Smith (the poet), on Instagram. She's amazing, she gives out good advice like you might get from a wise woman in the woods, it's inspiring, it's magical, and it's a blessing. Her poem, Good Bones, deservedly gets a lot of attention, and is well worth googling if you've not had the pleasure yet.

So I'm keeping moving, I'm checking what's working, reminding myself what's good. So many of us write poetry, maybe just for ourselves, as an act of coping, to defiantly make something beautiful in an ugly world, maybe sometimes we make something with really good bones, something that could be a gift to other people. Sometimes we need to send poems out into the world. With this in mind I've been sharing submission windows, but I'm thinking you're intelligent people, you don't need me to tell you where to send your poetry, so I'm going to stop doing that. Instead I'll tell you how I find out about submission windows in case there's something you're missing: 

1. I am a member of the Federation of Writers (Scotland). They bring together lots of writers who share opportunities and they all get put together into one massive monthly email by the rather fabulous poet AC Clarke. Other big writers groups are available, like the Society of Authors.  
2. I have signed up to get informed of opportunities from Creative Scotland I expect Arts Council England and the equivalents in other countries do similar things. 
3. I follow magazines and publishers on social media. I personally prefer Instagram, but they're everywhere. 
4. I check the websites of publishers and magazines I love, and sign up for notifications.
5. I keep a spreadsheet with information on poetry magazines and publishers, with a page of submission windows so I can easily see what's open. Here's a wee screenshot to give you an idea. 

So you can do some or all of that stuff, but do share your poetry. This place has good bones, it could be beautiful. 

This post has been written whilst lying in bed, enjoying breakfast prepared by my husband, who doesn't get enough credit. Last night I went out with my youngest for dinner and a show. Over dinner she told me how glad she is to have her amazing teacher who has made her feel safe, heard, and able to achieve, and I cried because her teacher is an amazing woman and because my daughter has always deserved a teacher like that, and then we went to see The Greatest Show on Ice which actually was, and I cried again because people work so hard to make things magical and together we're freaking awesome.