SUBMISSION GUIDELINES - PTSD
DEADLINE: Midnight (GMT), March 31st, 2026
This new title explores the themes of PTSD, either from writers and poets' own personal perspectives and experiences, or from the experiences of friends, family and people close by. If you suffer, or have suffered from PTSD, or are connected to someone who has, please consider contributing.
POETRY
You can submit up to SIX poems about PTSD (although we may not publish them all). You can also write a little about each poem; what it means to you, why you wrote it, etc. Please also submit a brief author's biography (up to 150 words) and, at the end of your bio, any links/contact details you would like publishing (eg: e-mail, website, FB page, blog, Instagram etc). If your contact details are not at the end of your bio, we will not publish any contact details.
We are also looking for interviews and personal stories. These can be about your own journey with PTSD, or about someone else close to you suffering from PTSD.
INTERVIEWS
We can e-mail you a list of general questions, which you can then reply to at your leisure, and adapt according to your own personal circumstances and experiences. You can also submit up to SIX poems about PTSD to run alongside your interview.
PERSONAL STORIES & SHORT PROSE
Or you can simply write a piece of prose (written text) specifically about your own personal journey with PTSD. Up to around 1500 words. Please also send a writers' biography, and any contact/social media details you don't mind being published with it. You can also submit up to SIX poems about PTSD to run alongside your personal story.
Guidelines
We cannot re-publish poetry, interviews or personal journeys if they have already been published in any of our other books or on the website. However, poetry that has been published on this website (but not in our books) can be re-published in PTSD, but please re-submit them with an updated bio/contact details,. and following the guidelines detailed here.
NOTE: We often have young people reading and contributing to our website and titles, so NO swearing or profanities of any kind, or anything of an adult nature. Any emails containing these items will be immediately deleted, we will delete you from our database, and you will not be able to contribute to further titles. Find alternative words to describe your emotions!
CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSIONS: By submitting you agree for us to publish your work in PTSD, on this website, and on our Facebook page. You can submit under a pseudonym, or anonymously if you prefer. However, you do retain copyright and are free to publish your work anywhere else, and at any time after publication with us - we believe words about mental health issues should be read as widely as possible! We can also accept previously published work, as long as it credits where and when it was previously published, and that we have permission to re-publish.
Please try to send your submission/s altogether within one email, or as a .doc attachment to: Robin@PoetryForMentalHealth.org.
Please do not send poetry as a pdf file though, as they are sometimes difficult to cut and paste while keeping the correct format.
VERY IMPORTANT: Please put PTSD in the subject line so we don't get muddled up with other submissions - we get lots of poems sent to us every week and we might miss your submission to the book if it is not properly labelled.
We will normally acknowledge your submission within a few days, but please be patient - Poetry for Mental Health is run voluntarily and it can sometimes take a while to get to everyone!
IMPORTANT: If you have received an acceptance email regarding your submissions, you cannot then change or withdraw your submission, as to save time post-deadline, we immediately place all accepted submissions directly into the paperback and Kindle formats ready for publishing (hence we are able to publish very soon after deadline date). So make sure your submission is publication ready.
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT: We DO NOT send out complimentary author's copies of the paperback; with so many authors from so many countries, firstly it would be logistically impossible, and secondly extremely expensive! Poetry for Mental Health receives no grants, and any profits we do make from the book go straight back into promoting and publishing poetry for mental health. However, we will of course, send a complimentary PDF e-book to everyone contributing.
Any questions? Contact us.
Get writing!!!!

