We publish: two issues of Passager Journal each year; a number of books of poetry, short stories, and memoir; a biennial book prize for a new poet over 70; and the Pandemic Diaries.
Please see our guidelines below.
Poetry Contest
Submission period: February 15 – April 15
Publication: August/September
Accepted genres: poetry only
Up to 5 poems, 40-line max ea.
$20 reading fee, includes 1-year subscription to Passager*
$1000 prize. Honorable mentions will be published.
Not accepting submissions at this time.
Open Issue
Submission period: July 15 – September 15
Publication: January/February
Accepted genres: poetry, memoir, short fiction
Up to 5 poems, 40-line max ea. OR 4,000 words of prose
$5 reading fee
Not accepting submissions at this time.
Submission Guidelines
New submissions policy:
Passager has always been about welcoming new voices and giving readers a broad range of the best work by older writers. We wish we could afford to print all the poems and prose we love. Since we can’t, we often (reluctantly!) must make hard choices.
So, if you have had work in a recent issue of Passager, please read on.
You may submit to the Poetry Contest without interruption each year. However, if your poem has appeared in the most recent Open Issue or Poetry Contest issue, you will only be eligible to win the prize and become the new Passager Poet. You are not eligible for Honorable Mention (the publication of a single poem).
When submitting to the Open Issue, please wait 2 issue cycles (a year and a half) before submitting again. For example, if you were published in the most recent Open Issue or Poetry Contest issue, you would not submit to the next Open Issue. We’ll be happy to see your work again the year after that.
Writers must be age 50 or older at the time of publication to submit.
We prefer hard copy submissions, but for your convenience, you may also submit online via Submittable.
Passager
7401 Park Heights Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21208
Include a cover letter and brief bio.
Include your name and contact information on each page (even for the Poetry Contest, or when submitting online).
Checks for reading fees should be made out to “Passager.” *Due to the costs of international shipping, submissions outside the U.S. will receive a 1-year digital subscription to Passager with their poetry contest reading fee.
No previously published work will be considered.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere!
No email entries accepted.
Unfortunately, we are unable to return submitted work to you.
Work received outside of the submission period will not be considered.
We urge you to become familiar with Passager before submitting. Read samples of past issues or order sample copies.
Have a question that wasn’t covered here? Please check our FAQs page.
Our next reading period for book manuscripts is during the month of February 2023. (Note: unfortunately, we won’t be reading unsolicited manuscripts in 2022.)
Passager only considers manuscripts from authors whose work has appeared in Passager Journal. If you have not yet been published in the journal, please see the guidelines for journal submission. We have two reading periods a year.
Congratulations to Mark Elber,
The 2022 Henry Morgenthau lll First Book Poetry Prize Winner!
Read from Elber’s winning manuscript Headstone and celebrate our honorable mentions, here.
The Henry Morgenthau III First Book Poetry Prize is awarded biennially to a poet 70 or older. Read more about Henry Morgenthau III and his legacy here.
Reading Period Closed
All correspondence concerning the contest should be addressed to Passager, 7401 Park Heights Ave. Baltimore, MD 21208. Or email: editors@passagerbooks.com
For our online feature “Pandemic Diaries,” we invite observations, impressions, feelings, conversations, encounters with people and places, drawings, and artwork related to or responding to the ongoing Pandemic. Whatever your situation, if you are at home or working, volunteering, taking care of children and parents, please share with us an entry from your journal. No poems or essays, please, and only submit entries from August 2021 forward. Writers must be age 50 or older to submit.
We are also collecting entries describing a piece of art, music or literature that moves you these days. And tell us why.
Total Word Limit: 250 words
Total Artwork Limit: 2 images
Please include: the date of the entry, your state/country.
We will periodically post some entries in whole or part on our website. If yours is selected, we will contact you.
Submit your entry on Submittable or send to editors@passagerbooks.com.
