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Submissions

The following guidelines should be of assistance in deciding whether you feel Acumen would be interested in your work.

Poetry

All poetry is read carefully. Any poem that may possibly have a chance of publication is shortlisted and from this shortlist the final poems for the magazine are chosen. All other poems are returned within one to six weeks. Any unused shortlist poems are returned as soon as possible.

Due to high postage costs, however, poems which are not shortlisted, but which have accompanied a shortlisted poem, will be held along with that poem so that the s.a.e. can be used for the final decision. We receive around 10,000-15,000 poems a year and can only publish a hundred and fifty a year at the most so the chances of rejection are high. But then this applies to most magazines.

When reading poetry we look for a poem that says something which is not trivial, not obvious, doesn’t use outworn images or diction, and which works at many levels simultaneously.

To submit online:

  1. Please send submissions (no more than four poems) as a word doc or docx document and as an attachment. Please don’t send pdf’s as these can be difficult if sometimes impossible to open.
  2. All poems to be in one file, but each poem to be on a separate page.
  3. Each page to have your name and postal address on it.
  4. Please put SUBMISSION in the subject box.
  5. If rejected, please do not send further poems in for three months.
  6. Send to patriciaoxley6@gmail.com

Articles / Features

Acumen is always on the lookout for new and unusual articles etc. However, the magazine likes quality writing in its prose. It will consider articles on poetry and poetry-related subjects (eg. criticism, use of language, poetry from past-masters re-evaluated, etc.) , the main criteria being they are relevant, well-written, interesting and readable (ie. with a minimum of jargon throughout the text). Length can vary from 1,500 words up to 3,500 words.

General

All submissions should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope of a suitable size for return of work, or for any answer required. Please put your name and address on each separate sheet; shortlisted poems especially can get separated from the return envelope, and though editors try to be efficient and check this, we are only human and errors do occur. We have several anonymous poems still awaiting collection by their authors.

Recent Submissions

  • Tom Montag

  • Norbert Hirschhorn

  • Sheila Aldous

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  • Madhu Kailas

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  • William Bedford

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  • Synne Johnsson

  • Sharon Black

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  • Sam Garvan

  • Isobel Miles

  • Mike Barlow

  • Sue Spiers

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  • Veronica Beedham

  • Veronica Niero

  • Shanta Acharya

  • Andrew Morrison

  • Phil Kirby

  • Fred Beake

  • Ian Heffernan

  • Pauline May

  • Mimi Khalvati

  • Veronica Aaronson

  • Peter Scheponik

  • Paul Surman

  • Kate Hurd

  • Nicola Warwick

  • William Oxley

  • Veronica Aaronson

  • Peter Scheponik,

  • Martin Reed

  • William Bedford (2 poems)

  • Bert Molsom

  • Elizabeth Birchall

  • Tom Dwight

  • Michael Henry

  • Maxine Rose Munro

  • Abeer Ameer

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  • Fred Johnson

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  • Matthew Page

  • David Heidenstam

  • Carol Harte

  • Elizabeth Barton

  • Michael Jennings

  • Alice Harrison

  • Christopher Southgate

  • Patricia McCarthy

  • Colin Pink

  • Jeff Phelps

  • Jennifer Johnson

  • Paul Stephenson

  • Rainer Maria Rilke

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  • Norton Hodges

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  • Mirkka Jokelainen

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  • Maggie Butt

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  • Doreen Hinchliffe

  • Donald Gardner

  • Julian Aiken

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  • Virginia Purchon

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  • Christine Griffin

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  • Kenneth Steven

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  • Paul Surman

  • Harry Guest

  • Maria Gunnarsson

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  • Jason Eng Hun Lee

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  • Frank McHugh

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  • Susan Taylor

  • Ian Royce Chamberlain

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  • Michael Newman — two poems

  • James Coghill

  • Derek Adams

  • Mike Smith

  • Elizabeth Olushola Adeolu

  • Veronica Aaronson

  • Jacob Lotinga

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  • Maggie Butt

  • Merryn Williams

  • Stuart Buck

  • John Godfrey

  • David Burridge

  • Katherine Crocker

  • Jonathan Steffen

  • Keith McFarlane

  • John Greening

  • Rebecca Gethin

  • Bridget Thomasin

  • Maggie Freeman

  • Gill McEvoy

  • Terry Quinn

  • Tim Cunningham

  • Kathy Miles

  • Philip Rush

  • Chandan Das

  • BN Oakman

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  • Fred Johnston

  • Ann Alexander

  • Dinah Livingstone

  • Lucy Cotterill

  • David Olsen

  • Jeremy Robson

  • Nancy Mattson

  • James Deahl

  • Wu Yulun

  • Caravan Hosts

  • Young Lions

  • The Great God Dies

  • Immortal

  • Letters to Akhmatova

  • A Dancing Satyr

  • Witness

  • Paean to a Cox’s Orange Pippin

  • Like A Child

  • The First of Spring

  • On seeing Iran in the news, I want to say

  • Who I Am

  • Two More Poems

  • Two Poems

  • Another Place

  • Wetherby Bridge

  • Interim Police Report on Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • The Default Poem

  • Bystanders

  • Waiting in the Lobby

  • From A Brief Prelude. Or: Where He Came From

  • Three Incarnations of the Reverend Clarence Rigby

  • ‘Shall I Walk With You Some Of The Way?’

  • 13th C. Middle English love lyric

  • The Tempting

  • Making a Difference

  • The Host of the Last Supper

  • Listeners’ Choice

  • Your Beginnings

  • Daylight

  • Being Human

  • Christmas Star

  • High Maintenance

  • Self Contained

  • From the Crystal Nebula

  • Let’s Sleep Together

  • Honest to God

  • Young and Easy

  • The Seahorses

  • White Clover

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