How To Submit Your Work

Heron Tree volume 12 will be dedicated to found poems composed from sources published in or before 1929.

Between 15 January and 15 May 2025 we will be accepting submissions in the following categories:

1. Found poems created from any source material(s) published in or before 1929.
2. In honor of our 12th regular volume, we’re inviting found poems (still created from sources published in or before 1929) that incorporate 12 in some way. For instance, a poem could have 12 syllables, 12 words, or 12 lines; it could use the word “twelve” or “dozen;” it could be an erasure of page 12 or Chapter 12 of a particular book; it could be created from a word-pool you generated by gathering every twelfth word of a source; it could be a cento combining 12 different sources. These are just suggestions!

We encourage you to download and read some collections of found poetry that we have published in the past: Found in the Public Domain, Songs, From the Blue Fairy, Of Climates & Continents, and all the poems in volume 8, volume 9, volume 10, and volume 11.

More information:

– We are interested in all approaches to found poetry construction and erased or remixed texts.

– Poems that are not in one of the categories listed above will not be considered.

– If you are working with a text that was translated into English, the English translation must also be published in or before 1929.

– Send up to 5 poems with a cover letter to submit.herontree@gmail.com.

– In your email cover letter, please include a list of your poems’ titles.

– The poems should be attached in a single doc, docx, or pdf file. If your pieces are better viewed as digital images, insert them as jpegs within a single doc, docx, or pdf file.

– All submissions will be read blind, so do not include your name in the file with the poems.

– In the same file as the poems, provide a different process paragraph for each poem. It should identify the source(s) for the poem and clearly explain your method of composition. If a poem combines found material and your own words, that’s fine, but your process statement must make that clear. You can find examples of process paragraphs in our previous collections of found poetry. If a poem is accepted for publication, the process paragraph will be published with it.

– Simultaneous submissions are welcome with timely notification of acceptance elsewhere.

– Poems that have previously appeared online (temporarily or permanently, on your own or a third-party site) should not be submitted, nor should work that has already been published electronically or in print.

– Once you send your submission, you’ll receive an automatic email reply. If you don’t receive the reply, please check your spam folder and add Heron Tree to your contacts to ensure that you receive future communications about your submission.

– If your work is accepted by Heron Tree, you agree to grant us exclusive first publication rights and the non-exclusive right to include your work in the volume 12 collection and our online archives. You agree that if your poem subsequently appears elsewhere you will credit Heron Tree as the original publisher.

– Accepted poems will be published weekly on the Heron Tree website beginning in summer 2025 and will be included in a free downloadable PDF volume available later.

Heron Tree does not charge a fee for submitting nor provide payment for publication.

These guidelines are subject to change.