I n v e r t e d   
​S y n t a x

Sublingua Prize For Poetry

Inverted Syntax is a 2022 [CLMP] Best Debut Mag Finalist

2024 Sublingua Prize for Poetry will open in July 2024

2023 Submission Info
​Submit to our 5th Year Anniversary Print Issue

Sublingua Prize for Poetry 2023
 OPENS April 1 and closes July 8 2023
Inverted Syntax Editors will judge
​and select the winning poem:
Winner is awarded $500 Prize & a week-long
​self-guided writing retreat
at Victorian home in Leadville Colorado. 
Runner-Up is also awarded ​a week-long
self-guided writing retreat
Six Finalists will be recognized
Please read the guidelines before submitting.

Sublingua Prize for Poetry Guidelines 
UPDATED FOR 2022 & 2023

PLEASE READ:
Our editors are seeking work that risks everything. We favor the hybrid but welcome all writing. If it's well-crafted, uses language in daring ways, we want it.

Before you submit, check that your work meets our standards. Work is automatically ignored, rejected, declined, dismissed if it contains any manner of abusive behavior and this extends to the creators of said work. To be clear: NO racism, NO misogyny, NO homophobia, NO sexism, NO transphobia, NO body-shaming, NO Islamophobia, NO xenophobia, absolutely no work that in any way perpetuate stereotypes. 

About the Prize Starting in 2023 Inverted Syntax Sublingua Prize for Poetry awards a cash prize of $500, a writing retreat award, and publication in our print issue for exceptionally crafted, previously unpublished poem(s) by an emerging writer who has not yet published a full-length manuscript nor a chapbook exceeding 44 pages. We also award a writing retreat award to the runner-up. See below for more.

​All submission entries are also considered for publication and long-listed.

2023 judging will be conducted by all the editors of Inverted Syntax. One winner, one runner-up and up to 6 finalists will be selected.      

• The Sublingua Prize for Poetry Guidelines:

• Though it’s called the Inverted Syntax Sublingua Prize for Poetry, we accept work that celebrates hybridity, resisting genre-specificity. Whatever poetry means to you, send it our way.
• We will accept submissions between May and August. The winner will be announced by September.
• Please send no more than five poems, not exceeding six pages.
• Inverted Syntax strongly encourages diverse and inclusive voices, especially those from under-represented and vulnerable communities, to consider submitting work to Inverted Syntax.
• TWO FEE options:

                      -- $15 :The Sublingua Prize submission entry fee is $20. Includes the submission fee ONLY.            
                      -- $20: Submission Fee +  Print Issue 5 Nov 2023 issue included       

• Anyone affiliated with the editors or reading staff of Inverted Syntax is not eligible.
• Any writer whose work is published from the Sublingua Prize will receive a complimentary copy of Issue 5 | November 2023
• Past issues are available to purchase from our Store. 
• Remove all identifying information. 
• We accept submissions only though Submittable.
• Upload up to 5 pieces (not to exceed 6 pages) into a single file. Be sure to  use page numbers and 12-point font (preferably Garamond because this is the font we publish in), in .doc, .docx, and pdf.
• Please use page numbers
• The print journal is 8.5 x 8.5. We attempt to preserve the original formatting by all means possible, but there are some limitations when working within  7.5 x7.5 after margins. Please keep this in mind when formatting your work for us. Please check our general submission guide if you need further information.
• We accept simultaneous submissions. Notify us immediately if your work is picked up elsewhere.
• We accept multiple submissions, but each submission must be accompanied by its own fee.
• The Sublingua Prize is only open to anyone who resides in USA due to the challenges related to international financial transactions around the prize money. Submitters must thus be able to receive a check from a US bank or be able to accept a Venmo transfer. 
• All Sublingua poetry contest submissions will be read by the editorial staff. Editors and judge will not have access to the identities of the submitters.​
• The editors of Inverted Syntax will meet as a group to select thirty semi-finalists and from that, select up to six finalists, including the winning poem which will be awarded a $500 prize. In addition: Both the winner and runner-up will be awarded a week-long self-guided writing retreat in Leadville, Colorado.
  • The Sublingua Writing Retreat Award Sublingua Writing Retreat Award is a week-long, self-guided writing retreat in the small ski town of Leadville, Colorado staying at an historic Victorian home in walking distance to downtown Leadville. ​The 2023 Sublingua Writing Retreat Award must be used between March 25, 2024 and July 25, 2024 or between October 1- November 8. The deadline to accept the award is no later than December 1, 2023. *
  • • Recipients of this award may invite up to four members of their writing community to join them. The award covers all accommodation costs at the Victorian home, absorbed by Inverted Syntax Press LLC. 
    • Click here for Photos of the Sublingua Writing Retreat
    • There is no cost to recipients, however, Inverted Syntax will accept donations via Venmo to help with the cleaning cost ($175) of the space. Please email Nawal at [email protected] to see how you can help offset this cost through a donation. Any amount is welcome and will go towards the cleaning.
    • The award cannot be exchanged for goods nor can it be transferred to a different recipient. 
    • ​The 2023 Sublingua Writing Retreat Award must be used between March 25, 2024 and July 25, 2024 or between October 1- November 8. The deadline to accept the award is no later than December 1, 2023. *
    • Recipients will however be responsible for their own travel arrangements, as well as their own meals.

​​​Inclusivity Statement All volunteers, readers, subscribers, submitters, and any participants, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability are valued and respected. Inverted Syntax editors are committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and welcoming environment where our community of contributors and supporters feel valued. 

Past Sublingua Promotional Announcements are listed below

Closes July 1st, 2020 

Khadijah Queen will judge Inverted Syntax’s 
​2nd Annual Sublingua Prize for Poetry 
Submissions will be open March 7 through July 1.

The Inverted Syntax Sublingua Prize for Poetry awards a cash prize of $1,000 and publication in our print issue for an exceptionally crafted, previously unpublished piece(s) by a writer who has not yet published a full-length manuscript nor a chapbook exceeding 44 pages. The award-winning poet ​Khadijah Queen​ will judge. All submission entries are also considered for publication.

Photo credit: Michael Teak 2018

About our 2020 Sublingua Judge
​
Khadijah Queen, PhD, is the author of five books, most recently I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On (YesYes Books 2017). Earlier poetry collections include Conduit (Akashic / Black Goat 2008), Black Peculiar (Noemi Press 2011) and Fearful Beloved (Argos Books 2015). Her verse play Non-Sequitur (Litmus Press 2015) won the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women's Performance Writing. The prize included a full staged production of the play at Theaterlab NYC from December 10 - 20, 2015 by Fiona Templeton's The Relationship theater company. Individual poems and prose appear in Poetry, Fence, Tin House, American Poetry Review, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast, Poor Claudia, The Offing, jubilat, Memoir, Tupelo Quarterly, DIAGRAM, The Volta Book of Poets, LitHub, New Delta Review, The Force of What's Possible and widely elsewhere. Reviews of her work can be found in O Magazine, The New Yorker, Rain Taxi, BOMB Magazine, SCOUT, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Review, Open Letters Monthly, The Volta, Kenyon Review, and other publications. Her 2019 op-ed on poetry and disability, co-edited with Jillian Weise, appeared in The New York Times. She is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at University of Colorado, Boulder, and serves as core faculty for the Mile-High MFA in creative writing at Regis University. Her sixth book, ANODYNE, is forthcoming from Tin House in August 2020.