iPoem Guidelines

Our iPhone Application places the magazine’s complete contents for free at the touch of a button on your iPhone and iPad. Now you can take all of Narrative’s stories, poems, cartoons, and audio and video files with you anywhere.

Our App is FREE and contains a state-of-the-art eReader that’s easy and a pleasure to use. The App is available for download directly from Apple's App Store on your iPhone, iPad, or Touch.

With the launch of the App, we created a new poetic form—the iPoem—and we’re inviting submissions for publication both in the magazine and on the iPhone.

Click here to submit your iPoem.

The Guidelines are as follows:

An iPoem is a short poem that will fit within no more than two screens on the iPhone. An iPoem may be up to 150 words long. However, we favor iPoems that can be read in a single screen, which would be a poem of about forty words, allowing space for title and byline.

Just as the advent of the typewriter both limited and enhanced the form of poetry, the new media are making an impact on the form and how readers experience it. So, without establishing specific formal criteria for the iPoem, other than length, we are nonetheless interested in seeing works that indicate the poet’s awareness of how the new media affect, for instance, the line in poetry. We favor works that demonstrate an awareness of and interest in prosody.

Payment: We will pay $50 for each iPoem accepted for publication.

Submission Fee: There is a $20 fee for each submission. A submission may include up to four iPoems. With your submission, you’ll receive three months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.

Formatting Your Manuscript: Your manuscripts should be in 12-point type, with at least one-inch margins, and double-spaced. Your name, address, telephone number, and email address should be typed at the top of the first page. You may also include a brief biographical note with your submission.

Click here to submit your iPoem.

Other Submission Categories: In addition to the iPoem category, please review our other Submission Categories for areas that may be right for you work.