The Hole in the Head Review

The 2026 Charles Simic Poetry Prize is open for submissions from September 15 through October 15. Submit a single poem of exceptional vision and quality. One winner receives $1,000 and publication, one Editor’s Choice receives $200 and publication, and five finalists receive $20 and publication.

General prose poetry submissions are currently closed. The editor seeks prose poems that expand and redefine the form, including the incidental, thunderstruck, syntactically impossible, and only possible in the prose poem. Submit one prose poem; submissions are read blind and cap at 50 per reading period.

General poetry submissions are currently closed. The journal seeks compelling contemporary poetry that reframes the ordinary, makes the personal universal, and transcends the singular “I.” Submit up to three previously unpublished poems in a single file, with no more than one poem per page. Submissions cap at 175 per reading period.