Submission Guidelines
What to send:
Send 10-15 (or more!) original, unpublished haiku (not under consideration elsewhere). Beginning with the fall 2023 issue, Acorn will consider work that has been self-published on social media or other uncurated online platforms. Do not send work that has appeared in print or on any curated online journal. No simultaneous submissions. Please send your best work!
How:
Submit by email to acornhaiku@gmail.com. Include your place of residence (city or town and country). Attachments will not be opened. Email submissions are encouraged!
Postal submissions will be given equal consideration and should be sent to Susan Antolin, 115 Conifer Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA, and must be accompanied by a SASE.
When:
We read work during January and February for the spring issue and July and August for the fall issue. We do not hold or read work sent before the reading period opens. Acceptances are made on a rolling basis. If you have not heard back within 3 weeks of your submission (or one week if you’ve submitted at the very end of the reading period), please feel free to get in touch to check that we received your poems. Due to the high volume of submissions, we ask that each poet submit only once per reading period.
While you’re here:
Please take a moment to read sample poems from recent issues on the "Sample Poems" page of this website.
Authors who have not previously published in a specialized haiku journal, or are new to the genre generally, may want to consult the following introductory essay, “Contemporary Haiku: Origins and New Directions,” which gives some ideas of our editorial outlook: http://webdelsol.com/Perihelion/acmarticle.htm (by Acorn's founding editor, A.C. Missias).
This essay by current edtior, Susan Antolin, may also be of interest: Haiku Aesthetics: A Look at Understatement.
Please understand that Acorn is a highly selective journal that publishes only a small fraction of the excellent poems submitted for each issue. If your work is not accepted for publication, this does not necessarily reflect poorly on the quality of your poems!