Our literary magazine was founded on Leonard Cohen’s 89th birth anniversary on September 21, 2023. We are poets obsessed with the ways in which poetry can both break you and build you up. Welcome to this little corner of the internet where we can sing into the void and remember that poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
Please note, we are currently on break until January 6. The next Poet of the Week will be featured on January 12.
2024 #WRAPPED
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We were voted the #1 Best Poetry Lit Mag of 2024 (Chill Subs Community Favorites)!
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We published 60 poets, out of which 23 were emerging and 13 were international.
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We held 11 creative writing workshops that all sold out (some of ‘em bursting at the seams so we had to do two sessions)
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We streamlined a magazine membership with three different tiers with loads of juicy perks. We now have almost 100 members!
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We also dropped deliciously designed Merch, y’all!
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We launched THE LATEST featuring book recommendations, reviews, lists, publishing tips, resources & more!
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We got wayyy bigger as a team with over 35 readers, 6 interns, and 3 contributing artists! Also, Justine and Svetlana joined the Editorial Board.
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We averaged about 1000 submissions a month over on our Submittable. That’s about 10,000 pages of poetry…every month.
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We hit 18K newsletter subscribers! Subscribe below to get updates, special offers, the best poetry around town, & more!
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Our Instagram’s been booming, with over 28K followers. We also started a Bluesky and Threads account.
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Todd Dillard was our most-read poet, followed closely by Maria Gray and Kaylee Young-Eun Jeong!
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We launched our first ever poetry contest without selling our souls (or at least we tried real hard) called the ONLY POEMS Poet of the Year Prize! (We received 1133 submissions for this!)
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We got permission from the Leonard Cohen Estate (!!!) to name our second award after the man himself. Winners of the inaugural Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize will be announced in January.
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We held five live poetry reading sessions with some brilliant poets that consistently had an attendance of 50-80 people.
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Kaylee (again, wooo!) was selected for the prestigious Best New Poets anthology (alongside two of our editors tooo!)
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Poems we published were featured four times on Verse Daily!
From First Drafts to Book Deals
A Querying Agents Power-Class
Saturday, February 1 @ 12 pm EST
2-hour Online Workshop with Justine Payton & Kennedy Cole
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Let’s be honest: querying is one of the hardest things that writers do, and oftentimes one of the most disappointing. It’s hard to get an agent—really hard, actually. But they are the “gatekeepers” of the literary world, essential for most publishing avenues, and while it’s challenging, it’s not impossible. Knowing this, “From Draft to Deal” is designed to give you the best chance of querying successfully.
While many querying workshops focus solely on the query letter—which is undeniably important—they miss out on the other essential part of the querying process: the agents. In this workshop, you will learn the components of a successful query letter as well as how to approach the querying process strategically and with the greatest chance of finding the best agent for you. We will discuss how best to approach searching for agents and the benefits of different types of agents (new or established, boutique agency or well-known mega-agency, etc.), how to plan your querying in rounds, and how to develop and customize your query letter.
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Your instructors—Justine Payton and Kennedy Cole—are agented writers in nonfiction and fiction respectively, and will share about their personal querying journeys and experiences in finding an agent. The workshop will include ample time for Q&A, and all participants will be provided with resources and templates to support their querying process.
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Justine Payton is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship and the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing. She has been published or has work forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review,Terrain.org, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, andothers. She is currently the managing editor of ONLY POEMS, an editor for Ecotone, a guest editor for The Masters Review and CRAFT, and an editorial intern with Tin House. She is currently at work on her memoir.
Kennedy Cole is an agented writer and a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a BFA in creative writing and a Certificate in Publishing. She works as an Editorial Assistant with ONLY POEMS, and previously studied as an intern with History Through Fiction, a practicum student with Lookout Books, and the Managing Editor of Atlantis: A Creative Magazine. This spring, she expects to intern with both Blair Publisher and The Outpost Foundation. Her writing is published in Second Story Journal, Oakland Arts Review, and Carolina Muse. The publisher for her horror novel, THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE, will be announced in 2025.
