Thank you for your interest in submitting to Copper Canyon Press.

Copper Canyon Press is a nonprofit independent book publisher dedicated to poetry. We look forward to reviewing your work.

The 2026 Open Reading Period begins at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, June 22, 2026. When the reading period opens, this Submittable page will display buttons for submitting your materials. The number of submissions is capped at 850.

We will make announcements via our website and social media platforms when this cap is reached.

You are allowed only one (1) submission per reading period.

Submission Guidelines

For our 2026 Open Reading Period, poets and translators are invited to submit a 15–20 page manuscript sample along with a query letter and a short bio. This is not a contest and submissions will not be read anonymously. Please read through all guidelines and instructions below.

Eligibility

Poets and translators at every stage of their career, whether living in the United States or abroad, are eligible to submit one (1) manuscript sample to our open reading period. However, those who have worked with Copper Canyon Press in the past five (5) years (interns, volunteers, full-time and part-time employees) are not eligible to submit. Books that have been self-published are also not eligible for submission.

Returning Copper Canyon poets are encouraged to reach out to their editor directly. If there are any questions regarding your eligibility, please email submit@coppercanyonpress.org with the subject line “2026 Open Reading Period Eligibility Inquiry.”

Submission Timeline

Copper Canyon Press will hold one (1) open reading period in 2026, which will be capped at 850 submissions. The reading period will open at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, June 22, and will close when the submission cap is reached. When the reading period opens, this Submittable page will display buttons for submitting your materials.

An announcement will be made via our website and social media platforms when the Open Reading Period has closed. We recommend submitting your manuscript sample as early as possible within any given reading period.

Reading Fee

A reading fee will be charged for submissions. Reading fees help Copper Canyon Press to staff our open reading periods, and to continue to support poets and poetry from around the world. The amount of your payment will not impact editorial decisions.

$35 reading fee, Standard Level—This fee allows Copper Canyon to continue the consideration of unsolicited manuscripts.

Copper Canyon Press is a nonprofit publisher. We can only sustain our publishing program with the help of generous donors. Your voluntary donation of an additional $15 (just check the box before you pay and submit) will not only enable Copper Canyon to waive reading fees for poets experiencing financial hardship but will also help the Press continue to support poetry from different cultures, identities, and beliefs. Please help to publish new poetry!

Since the start of 2025, many of the granting organizations that have long supported Copper Canyon Press, as well as other arts nonprofits throughout the country, have been forced to make changes to grant programming that go against their missions, values, and the spirit of the arts.

As these changes continue to create an air of uncertainty in funding for the arts, Copper Canyon Press stands firm in our belief that poetry is vital to language and living, and that inclusivity is essential to the health of the literary landscape. We thank you for your support.

Fee Waiver—This option is available for those who cannot afford the reading fee. Please do not select this option if you can afford to pay $35; your payment helps us to keep publishing poetry like yours and to support other poets who are not in a position to pay the reading fee.

Copper Canyon Press offers 85 fee waivers, available on a first-come, first-served basis. When the reading period opens, choose the Fee Waiver option for submitting your manuscript sample. Do not query in advance. Personal requests for fee waivers will not be considered.

If you are currently experiencing financial difficulty and cannot afford the reading fee, you may select the Fee Waiver option. We will announce when the fee waiver cap has been reached. This is an honor system; please choose it in good faith.

Submission Materials

Copper Canyon Press exclusively focuses on poetry and poetry-related texts. Do not submit AI-generated material. We will not consider AI-generated submissions. We are interested in reading samples from:

• Poetry collections, including works in translation
• Prose manuscripts with a focus on poetry
• Manuscripts in hybrid genres that will delight a poetry-reading audience

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with our mission and catalog before submitting a manuscript sample and query letter. If you need accommodations to make the submission process more accessible, please email submit@coppercanyonpress.org using the subject line “2026 ORP Submission Accessibility Request.”

Information on submission materials can be found below.

(1) Query letter:

• A query letter of 500 words or fewer. Do not include your query letter in the manuscript sample. Copy and paste your query letter into the text box provided in the Submittable platform.
• What to include in your query letter: Your query letter is an opportunity to briefly pitch your book beyond what we see in the manuscript sample. For example: Is your book organized in sections? Does it have a narrative arc? Does it pull from archives? Does it rely on a set of formal or stylistic elements? Translators will want to include information about the rights holder of the original text as well.
• Make certain the query letter you submit is your best draft. Corrections and revisions will not be accepted during the reading period.

(2) Author Bio:

• An author bio of up to 200 words. Copy and paste your author bio into the text box provided in the Submittable platform. If you are a translator, include both an author and a translator bio.

(3) Manuscript Sample:

• Manuscript samples should be 15–20 pages, Times New Roman, 12-point font (unless changes in font style and size are elements of the poem), and be a .doc or a .docx or a .pdf. Again, please do not include your query letter in the manuscript sample. A text box is provided for query letters directly in the Submittable platform.
• Select a sample that illustrates the strengths and key themes of your book. You may opt to share consecutive pages or pull poems from throughout the book.
• While the individual poems of a manuscript sample may have been previously published in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks, etc., the work as a whole must be unpublished. Books that have been self-published are not eligible for submission.
• If applicable, in addition to your manuscript sample of 15–20 pages, you may include an acknowledgments page with a list of prior publications. For example, 20 pages of poems and one acknowledgments page.
• Even though you are submitting a manuscript sample of 15–20 pages, you should have a full manuscript ready for submission upon request.
• Make certain your submission is your best draft. Corrections and revisions will not be accepted during the reading period. If your manuscript still needs revisions, we encourage you to submit during the next open reading period.
• Simultaneous submission to other publishers is permitted. If your manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere, please officially withdraw it using the Submittable system.
• Please do not submit more than one manuscript sample per reading period. Additional samples, whether from the same manuscript or a different manuscript, will not be read.

TRANSLATIONS:

Copper Canyon Press takes pride in publishing high-quality translations. We have published poetry originally composed in Spanish, Chinese, Belarusian, Japanese, Arabic, and many other languages. We select books in this category based on the excellence of the English translation and our interest in the original text. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with translations we have already published.

• Translation submissions should be bilingual; we want to see the original text as well as the English translation. If this is not possible due to technical or other concerns, please indicate this in your query letter.
• If you are submitting a bilingual manuscript sample, you may submit up to 20 pages in English, and those same 20 pages in the original language, for 40 pages total. If your sample is just in English, you must adhere to the 20-page limit.
• Indicate in your query letter that you have identified the rights holder, unless the book is in the public domain. Ideally, a conversation regarding the rights to the book will have been engaged with the rights holder prior to your submission.

Next Steps

Your manuscript sample will be read and collectively evaluated by our editorial team. After reading all sample submissions, the editorial team may request full manuscripts from a select number of poets or translators each open reading period. We ask that you refrain from sending a full manuscript unless you have specifically been invited to do so.

Copper Canyon Press aims to send a status update to each poet or translator within six months of submission. However, reading the submissions can sometimes take longer than we hope. Our goal is to give each manuscript sample the time and attention it deserves and to be as communicative as possible about the review process and the status of manuscripts. Please wait the full six months before inquiring about the status of your submission.

And remember that the open reading period is NOT a contest. While we take seriously the opportunity to consider your work for publication, there is no guarantee that we will choose a book to publish in any given reading period.

Each poet and translator is a vital part of our community; we thank you for trusting us with your work!