Blue Diode Press: Call for Submissions - Winter 2026

An opportunity to join one of the most exciting and varied lists in UK poetry at the moment. Blue Diode Press will be open for submissions for FIRST COLLECTIONS from Sunday 25 January 2026 and will remain open until Tuesday 10 February 2026.

1. This call is for first collections only. If you’ve previously published a pamphlet, that doesn’t count as a first collection. Also a previous self-published/self-financed collection doesn’t count either.

2. Submissions are welcome from anyone resident in the UK. Apologies to the rest of the world. They can be in English, Scots or Gaelic (although Gaelic manuscripts will need to include an English translation).

3. Please send the full manuscript, which should not have been previously published in print or online (although individual poems can have been, of course). Each poem should start on a new page (use ‘page break’ in Word please!) and should be printed in a legible font in 12pt. I’d prefer a Word document but a pdf is acceptable if there are formatting issues. I don’t mind whether it’s in in A4, A5 or anything else.

4. Please also include a brief biog (under 100 words) and a small selection of magazines/anthologies etc which have published your poems.

5. I can’t provide feedback on submissions, but I will reply to everyone who submits.

6. Blue Diode Press welcomes submissions from disabled, working class, Latinx, Black and Asian poets, LGBTQ+ poets, and any other groups traditionally under-represented in UK publishing.

7. If Blue Diode Press can’t publish your work, please don’t take that as a sign that I hate your writing. I might like it a lot, but I can only publish a few books each year. Try again next time.

8. Submissions should be sent to bluedioderob[AT]gmail[DOT]com . You can make only one submission per submission window

9. Please give me a bit of time to read the submissions as I do this in my spare time! Feel free to send submissions elsewhere too. However, let me know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere, and do the same for others if Blue Diode Press accepts your manuscript for publication.

10. You don’t need to buy a Blue Diode Press publication to send in your manuscript and a purchase won’t affect chances of publication either way. But obviously small presses need and appreciate such support, so please consider doing it anyway! Have a look round the shop - https://www.bluediode.co.uk/shop