Submissions
Current Calls
Spring 2026: We’re shaking things up for Spring and will devote an entire issue to a single painting! “Pandora” by Odilon Redon offers myriad ekphrastic opportunities, including demons, the Pandora myth, its relationship to World War I, and of course the rich and provocative imagery. Large and full of vibrant color, it’s best viewed in person, so if you’re able to get to the Met, do go meet her. Submit your Pandora poems by March 15!
General Info
We welcome submissions year-round responding to works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection and special exhibits - all areas, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, costume, musical instruments, and the Met building itself. All styles are welcome from poets around the world.
There is no fee to submit.
Payment: $10 per poem
How to Submit: Please send up to three poems with a note about the work(s) they reference to metphrastics@gmail.com, and include a 2-3 line bio.
Simultaneous Submissions: Absolutely fine. Just let us know if a piece is accepted elsewhere.
Reprints: Occasionally. Please mention in your cover letter where the poem(s) first appeared.
Please Note: We get a number of submissions about works in other museums, and we get many that are simply not ekphrastic poems. We are unable to respond to these entries. Only ekphrastic poems about artwork at the Met will be considered and responded to. Please note the artwork(s) in your cover letter.
Notification: We notify everyone usually 2-3 weeks after the deadline.
Metphrastics is a fan zine, not officially affiliated with the Met, and we are run by a small staff of volunteers. Each poem is read carefully by both editors. Your patience is appreciated.
Tips
We prefer to feature poems about works currently on display, but it’s not a requirement unless stated in the submission call.
Submissions work best when they emerge from and engage with the artwork. We often receive entries that feel like the poem was written first, then a roughly corresponding artwork was chosen afterwards. These tend to be less successful for this project.
With occasional exceptions, we rarely publish anything longer than a page.
While we consider the quality of the poems first, we do try to include a variety of source artworks. As you can see on our By Artwork page, most poems we receive are about Modern & Contemporary, as well as European Painting. If you see a region or genre we haven’t covered as widely, you might take that as a prompt. For instance, we don’t yet have pieces on Latin America, Ancient America, or Africa, and we’re always looking for more Asian, Islamic, Ancient Near Eastern, Ancient Egyptian, Greek & Roman, American, Costume, Cloisters and Medieval.