Guidelines for the Amplify Poets of Color Project

Greetings, MoSt Poetry members! Thank you for considering sharing the poetry you find especially moving, inspiring, or amazing by Poets of Color. This group includes Black poets, but also Indigenous/Native American poets, Hispanic/Chicano/Latinx poets, and poets of Middle Eastern, East Indian, and Asian descent. We are sharing this poetry on the MoSt Facebook page (and other social media) through the month of July as too often these groups have been marginalized and their contributions to poetry have not been recognized. Their voices deserve to be heard.

When submitting a poem, please follow the guidelines below. This helps us to post the poem in a clean and easy way and also makes sure that we give credit where credit is due. Please note that the name of the person who suggested the poem is not included in the post, and that MoSt reserves the right to not post any poem if the submission guidelines are not met. We will only consider poems suggested by MoSt members. If you’d like to become a member, you can find the membership form on the front page of our website.

  1. The poem must be by a Black poet or a Poet of Color. Consider American poets as these are the poets who have been marginalized by the systemic racism in our country. 
  2. The poem must have been previously published online, in a journal/lit mag, or in a collection. But…if it has been posted online within the last 48 hours, it is already out there, so consider another poem or wait a few more days.
  3. The poem must not be by the person submitting it. 
  4. Please submit the poem as a Word document.
  5. Do not submit a scan, jpeg, or pdf.
  6. Include the original publication info so we can give credit where it is due.
  7. Be aware that social media sites will change the font and size to their specifications, so just keep the Word doc plain and simple. Font size 12, Times New Roman are great.
  8. Please honor the lines, stanzas, and spacing of the original poem. If they have complicated line breaks and spacing, we will make a jpeg of the Word doc you send, so please make sure everything is correct.
  9. The entire poem or excerpt must fit on one page, including title, author’s name, and publication information. 
  10. Submit the poem to info@mostpoetry.org with JULY in the subject line.

If you’d like to see an example of a poem we have posted, please check out the MoSt Facebook page for any day in June. 

Thank you!