Submission Guidelines

Please read all of the following information carefully.

The staff of bottle rockets leans very much away from the outdated grammar school
model of 5-7-5 haiku model. Therefore, please do not send any 5-7-5 "haiku." It will
surely be rejected and it will be a waste of your stamps and both of our time.

Visit highlights to get an idea of what is a fit for bottle rockets.

bottle rockets does not review unsolicited chapbook manuscripts.

What to Submit

bottle rockets seeks: haiku, senryu, very short haiku-like poems, tanka, and haibun. On rare occasions, very short (less than one page) single author haiku or tanka sequences will be considered. If you send a sequence, please state if we can publish parts of the sequence if we don't want to publish the entire piece.

What NOT to Submit

How to Submit

• All submissions within the U.S. should be submitted via USPS (snail mail). No email submissions will be accepted from poets in the U.S.
• Poets outside the U.S. may submit poems via email, but please confirm electronic receipt of all correspondence. Please put submission in the body of the email, NOT as an attachment. We don't open attachments for safety reasons.

What to Include

• The poems:
  • Please send no less than 5 and no more than 10 haiku, senryu or related poems. Any submission of more than 10 poems will not be reviewed or returned.
  • There should be no more than 5 poems per 8 1/2" x 11" page. Do not send, for example, 5 poems on 5 separate sheets of paper. 5 poems go on one sheet.
  • Each page should be typed and have the name,address, and e-mail (if you have one) of the author in the top right corner.
• Cover letters: It is highly recommended that poets submitting work for the first time include a cover letter.
• SASEs: All submissions must be accompanied by an self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) that is a size #10 (4" x 9.5"). Please do not send huge or really tiny envelopes. The standard size #10 is required. No submission will be returned; accepted or rejected. No exceptions. Please make a copy of your submission for your own records if you like. If you do not agree with this rule, that's ok, but please submit somewhere else, but not here.
  

Other important information

• Due to a large number of submissions, please do not submit more than two times during a three-month period.
• We will not publish more than three poems per poet per issue except in cases of a linked poem or a sequence.
• No simultaneous, previously published material, and/or work that has "appeared" anywhere in the universe please for any reason. That means in newsletters, websites, e-zines, blogs, discussion groups, contests, programs, flyers, any thing you can possible think of. Even if it is printed somewhere and the editor of that publication doesn't consider it "published," WE DO. If it has "appeared in public" or been published, do not send it.
• No submissions, whether accepted or declined, will be returned. Send only disposable manuscripts. If you do not want to follow these submission guidelines, please do not send anything.

Payment for accepted work

Due to printing and postal increases we are sorry to say that we are at this point unable to give a contributor's payment or contributor's copy for accepted work.

Disclaimer

bottle rockets does not assume liability for copyright infringement or failure to acknowledge previously published work. Rights revert to the author upon publication. bottle rockets reserves the right to post on this web page any accepted work.