New to whiptail?
Where should I start?
New submitters should make themselves familiar with whiptail by reading our Resources page and at least a few issues prior to sending their poems. Please take note of the general feel of the journal and the careful curation of poems chosen with attention to musicality, word choice, feeling, and expression. Then send us something you feel is honed and truly special. Give us goosebumps, bewilder us, wow us. (Also, those newer to one-line poems may wish to check out our Lizard Lounge, which is filled with reference information and poetry analysis.)
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We love communion with nature, journeys of transformation and healing, personal explorations and boundary-pushing, and honest experiences of the poet. While we do publish senryu and humancentric poems, most of the poems we publish incorporate nature elements or are grounded in nature.
Visit our Editor Interview on Duotrope to read about our process and what we look for in submissions!
Our selection process:
The selection process is held in the manner of a contest, conducted in multiple rounds of voting, and is semi-blinded.
Presentation:
​​whiptail is a digital journal. Periodically, we intend to draw selections from the digital issues for a print anthology. Starting with Issue 8, poets who are published in whiptail regular issues will have a guaranteed spot with at least one poem in the next whiptail print anthology (unless we find out you're mean to kittens, in which case all bets are off).