Please make it easy for us to read your submission, and use a straightforward easy to read font in 12-14 point. Double-spaced for prose, however you want it to appear for poetry. Deaf writers may submit by video in BSL.
ALL OUR CURRENT SUBMISSION CALLS HAVE DIFFERENT CRITERIA, PLEASE READ THE INDIVIDUAL CALL!
This information will help you to get accepted:
We will not accept anything that uses AI in any way.
We will not under any circumstances publish erotica, and we aren’t keen on horror of any kind, gore or torture.
We detest sexist and other stereotypes and deplore derivative plotlines, sloppy writing and clichés, and are bored by romance and chick-lit. We aren't keen on religion of any flavour.
If your writing is motivated by hate of any kind you won't get considered.
Other than that we will consider most genres provided they are beautifully written, imaginative, and have narrative substance and persuasive characterisation
Thank you!
Our Usual Criteria...
Stories and poems, (We don't publish memoir, or other kinds of non-fiction ) must be:
All your own work (this includes no use of AI) If you write with a partner you must both apply together.
Unpublished
Written in English
up to 2000 words long unless otherwise specified in a particular call out
Music (Where requested): original or traditional - i.e. YOUR copyright or out of copyright,
Arachne Press has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ writers, and our first anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry Joy//Us, was something of a hit! It was a strange moment, publishing joyful poems, that celebrated all that is best about our community/ies and lives. Times have moved on fast and we are now looking for Poems of Queer Resistance.
So what is that?
Coming out as Queer Resistance!
Living bold as Queer Resistance!
Pushing back as Queer Resistance!
Shouting out as Queer Resistance!
Showing up as Queer Resistance!
Knowing history as Queer Resistance!
Doing the work as Queer Resistance!
Politics as Queer Resistance!
Creativity as Queer Resistance!
The printed book as Queer Resistance!
The exclamation mark as Queer Resistance!
Now is the time for Queer Resistance!
Submitting your poetry to UP//ROAR is Queer Resistance!
UP//ROAR: Poems of Queer Resistance, will be published in 2026. If you are a UK poet (at any stage of your writing journey) who identifies as LGBTQ+ then please send in your poems of queer resistance (in the broadest definition of the words – in fact the broader the better) to be considered for inclusion in UP//ROAR!
Up//Roar will be edited by Joy//Us team, Jeremy Dixon and Cherry Potts.
This is a call for poetry by LGBTQ+ poets, for LGBTQ+ readers. If you don’t identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, then please do not submit. We are not looking for sexually explicit or derogatory poetry. Nor are we looking for poems about trauma or distress or hate (we recognise it is out there and needs writing about, but this is not that book).
Send us your unpublished poems, in English (or Welsh, with a translation*). This is a UK/Republic of Ireland only call, but within that, we want to see as many submissions from poets from the global majority as want to be published by us. Send us up to 5 poems – we will consider a maximum of 3 for publication. Poems can be any length, but think first, do you really need all those words? Send us your best!
We will not accept AI generated or AI assisted work, please don't send it. Any work found to be AI generated will be rejected.
*The poet must submit their work, not the translator, so if you have not translated your own work, the translator must give permission, and must be credited.
We will start crowdfunding for this book mid October for a month - we were turned down for ACE funding (again!) We are reasonably confident we can raise what we need to create and promote the book.
Submissions are open until 1 November 2025. The book will be published to coincide with International Coming Out Day on 11 October 2026 .