Founded in 1981, BOMB Magazine is dedicated to delivering the artist's voice. BOMB includes a print quarterly magazine and an online daily publication. In addition to conversations between artists of all disciplines, BOMB publishes original works of fiction, poetry, and translation.
BOMB hosts an annual literary contest, alternating between fiction and poetry each year, with a distinguished guest judge.
We encourage submissions of adventurous work that push the boundaries of form or content in some way. We open for general submissions on occasion. Please sign up for our newsletter for more details.
Before submitting, we encourage you to read the magazine, online and in print, to acquaint yourself with the material we have published. Subscriptions to BOMB are available here.
BOMB Magazine’s 2024 Poetry Contest is open for submissions, and we’re honored to have two-time National Book Award finalist Monica Youn joining us as this year’s guest judge. Youn will select one winner to receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB’s quarterly magazine.
Submission Guidelines
- Submission period: March 1–April 15, 2024 (at 11:59 pm ET).
- Manuscripts may contain no more than five poems and no more than ten pages.
- All entries will be considered anonymously. Do not include author name on manuscript pages. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be disqualified.
- Reading Fee: $30. Includes a yearlong print subscription to BOMB for US entrants (a $60 value). All non-US entrants will receive a digital-only subscription. All new subscriptions begin with BOMB’s Summer 2024 issue, arriving on newsstands June 15. Current subscribers to BOMB will receive details on discounted entry via email.
- Work must be previously unpublished.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted as long as you notify us if your piece is accepted elsewhere, but the fee is nonrefundable.
- Work must be uploaded via Submittable.
Email firstproof@bombsite.com with any questions. The winner and finalists will be announced in July 2024.
About Monica Youn
Monica Youn is the author of From From, a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award, and three previous poetry collections: Blackacre, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Barter, and Ignatz, also a finalist for the National Book Award. The daughter of Korean immigrants and a former lawyer, she is a member of the Racial Imaginary Institute and teaches at the University of California, Irvine.
You can read Youn's interview and two poems from her collection From From in BOMB's Winter 2023 issue.