Contact the series editor at

Best New Poets
c/o Meridian
P.O. Box 400145
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4145

Best New Poets is an annual anthology of 50 poems from emerging writers. Each year, a guest editor selects 50 poems from nominations made by literary magazines and writing programs, as well as an Open Internet Competition.

Each February, we contact writing programs and literary magazines and send them instructions on how to nominate their writers. Programs and magazines will have until April 15, 2012, to make nominations; after that date, we contact their nominated poets and ask those writers to upload work during our April 5 to May 20 May 25 (extended deadline!) submission window. So, if you've just had a poem published in a magazine or are enrolled in a creative writing program, you might consider asking them to nominate you.

If you don't receive a program or magazine nomination, there's also the Open Internet Competition, which is open to all writers who have not published a book-length collection of poetry. Unlike the free magazine and program nominations, the Open Competition requires a reading fee of $4.00. All poems are submitted online through ManuscriptHub.com. Click here for details.

Best New Poets 2011 Readings:

BNP 2011 Reading in New York City
March 7, 2012, 6 p.m.
featuring Angelo Nikolopoulos, Kimberly Grey, Cori A. Winrock, Stephen Neal Weiss, Nicole Sealey, Claudia Cortese and Matthew Ritger
The Cornelia Street Cafe (downstairs) in Greenwich Village
29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014

BNP 2011 Reading in Maplewood, New Jersey
March 15, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
featuring Stephen Neal Weiss, Claudia Cortese, and Kimberly Grey
[ Words Bookstore ]
179 Maplewood Avenue
Maplewood, NJ 07040