Return to SWAV Poetry Submissions
SWAV Poetry Europe accepts spoken word, audio, and video poem submissions from everyone living in Europe.
SWAV Poetry Europe is part of SWAV Poetry.
SWAV Poetry is part of waxpoetryart.com – the website for people who love poetry, art, photography, fiction, and plays.
Submissions are now open for the debut issue of SWAV Poetry Europe, to be published on January 15th, 2026 in the SWAV Poetry Library.
Submission Guidelines
Visit the SWAV Poetry About page to read the Code of Conduct and Privacy Policy, and to learn more about SWAV Poetry. Use the Back button on your browser to return to this page.
SWAV Poetry Europe is published in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada by Florencia Bay Books. Edited and designed by Kirk Ramdath. Nanaimo is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation of the Coast Salish Peoples.
You must agree with the terms on this page to make a submission to this publication. Your submission will be considered proof of your agreement and as such, no additional contract will be required for publication to proceed.
Agreement Statement
You must include the following statement with your submission:
"I agree with the guidelines for submissions to SWAV Poetry Europe."
Submissions of spoken word, audio, and video poetry are open to everyone living in Europe.
Please prepare your submission carefully. Every aspect of these submission guidelines is designed to make the publication process efficient and transparent, from the time of submission and into perpetuity. This means that the guidelines are very thorough and must be read carefully, especially if this is your first visit to a waxpoetryart.com publication. Only correctly formatted submissions will proceed to the review stage.
Submissions are open all year, divided into three submission periods, each four months long. Before you submit, read some of the work already published in this magazine on the Published page (starting on January 15th, 2026 with the debut publications.)
Submission Timeline:
Note About Time Zones
Please note that dates and times are based on the time zone where the magazine is published in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada –
Pacific Daylight Savings Time, GMT-7.
London and Lagos are 8 hrs ahead, Mumbai is 12.5 hrs ahead, and Sydney is 17 hrs ahead.
The following time display shows the current date and time in Nanaimo.
Once the date on the display shows January 15th, May 15th, and September 15th, a new submission period has begun, the previous period has ended,
and submissions will be considered accordingly.
You may need to submit earlier, or later than midnight your local time, to qualify for your intended submission period.
Please plan accordingly.
Submission Period Dates
Submission Period 1: January 15th to May 14th
Submission Period 2: May 15th to September 14th
Submission Period 3: September 15th to January 14th
Dates for Notice of Acceptance
Submission Period 1: Receive notice by July 15th
Submission Period 2: Receive notice by November 15th
Submission Period 3: Receive notice by March 15th
Publication Schedule
Submission Period 1: Published on September 15th
Submission Period 2: Published on January 15th
Submission Period 3: Published on May 15th
Language of Publication
The language of publication is English.
Limited use of a few words using indigenous languages or local terms is acceptable when appropriate, if translations are provided in the notes.
Use phonetic English spellings for words in languages that have non-Latin character sets so that English-language readers
will be able to read and pronounce the words. (eg. Mandarin, Russian, Hindi, Greek, etc.)
No Attachments for Text
The entire submission must be copied and pasted or manually transcribed into the body of a single email and sent to the email address shown below.
Do not include any text of your submission in an attachment.
Number of Poems
Submit one spoken word, audio, or video poem.
All Styles
All styles of spoken word, audio, and video poets are invited to submit.
Audio Component is Essential
The key component is the audio reading or performance of the poem.
Therefore, video poems where the poem is displayed and not read or performed, will not be considered.
Poem Format: Link to Embeddable Audio / Video
Upload the audio or video of your poem to a website such as Soundcloud or YouTube, that allows the file to be viewed publicly,
and embedded into a website. Provide the link to the audio or video file to submit your poem.
Maximum Running Time: 5 Minutes
The audio or video file should not run longer than 5 minutes.
Previously Unpublished
The poem submitted must be completely original to the aritst.
The poem must be previously unpublished by another poetry magazine that you have submitted it to for consideration, in audio or video form.
All other situations, the audio or video poem is considered as unpublished and may be submitted.
If the text of the poem has been published, you can still submit an audio or video version
(as long as the audio or video version has not been published).
If accepted, the work must also remain unpublished until it is published by this magazine.
Suggest Keywords (Optional)
Suggest three keywords (or short phrases) for your submission, based on the themes of the submission.
Keywords can help your work be found in Internet searches by people who may be interested in the themes that your work represents.
Do not take keywords from the content of your work, as this is already done.
Rather, consider in a more general way, what your work is about, and who will find your work interesting,
using words that are not included in the text portions of your submission.
For instance, consider a poem about a father taking his two teenage sons on a backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains.
Three possible keywords are fatherhood, male bonding, hiking Appalachia.
(As the Catskill Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains.)
Underage Artists (Less than 18 Years Old)
Persons under 18 years old are welcome to submit with the permission of a parent or guardian who has read these guidelines and agreed to them.
Persons under 18 must include their Date of Birth and the name of the parent or guardian who has read these guidelines and granted permission.
Note to Parents: Most of the work published in this magazine is appropriate for a general audience.
However, this magazine may contain any theme within the scope of art, including mature themes.
This magazine is not intended for young children and parental guidance is advised.
Persons 18 years old and under can also submit to Young Poets World,
which is specifically for poets 18 and under and will not include mature themes.
Prohibition on AI-generated Text and Images
Submissions found to contain text or imagery generated by artificial intelligence (AI) will be automatically discarded
and the submitter will be permanently prohibited from submitting to any publications published and edited by myself, Kirk Ramdath.
Prohibition on Harmful Content
As per the Code of Conduct, work that is considered harmful toward any group of people will not be considered.
Work that uses derogatory terms for women or marginalized people will not be considered.
Biography
Include a short biography, approximately 100 words, maximum.
Please do not list more than five previous publications.
If you have social media artist pages, you can include links at the end of your biography.
Long biographies will be truncated at the editor's discretion.
The biography should be a short description of the artist can comprise, for example, previously published work,
hobbies and interests, general motivations for being creative, etc.
The biography should not be a note about the submitted work.
If it is necessary to include a note about the work, include the note as separate from your biography.
Special Biography Rules for Artist Pages
All published artists receive their own SWAV Poetry Artist Page.
Once you have an Artist Page, you can submit normally.
However, you do not need to include a biography as your Artist Page already contains your biography.
To update the biography on your Artist Page, specify that you are submitting an "Updated Biography" in your new submission.
If your new submission is accepted, your biography will be updated.
This is the only way to update the biography on your Artist Page.
If you have an Artist Page and you include a biography without specifying that it is an Updated Biography,
your biography will not be updated, even if your work is accepted.
Legal Name and Mailing, Postal, or Residential Address
Include your legal name, if different from your artist name, and complete mailing address
including street number, street name, city, province / state, country, postal code, and optional phone / WhatsApp number.
Notice of Receipt of Your Submission
All submissions will receive an automated reply confirming that the email containing your submission has been received.
If your submission is correctly formatted, within 30 days, you will receive confirmation that your submission is correct and will proceed to the review stage.
Submission Queries: Wait 30 Days
Unfortunately, some email servers may send the automated reply to your junk mail folder, or otherwise prevent it from reaching your inbox.
This does not mean that your message has not been received.
If 30 days passes from the time you sent your submission, and you are certain that your submission was correctly formatted,
send a query about your submission.
Do not send a query until after 30 days passes.
Incorrect Submissions Expire After 30 Days
If your submission is not correctly formatted, you will not receive a followup message after the initial automated response.
After 30 days, your submission will expire and will not be considered.
If your submission expires and you still wish to submit, review the submission guidelines, review your submission,
make necessary changes, and send an updated submission before the submission deadline to be considered for the current submission period.
See rules for updating submissions, below.
Please note that your submission date is based on when the correctly formatted submission is received.
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Simultaneous submissions are not allowed.
Do not submit the same poem at the same time to any other publication (including other waxpoetryart.com publications and contests).
Additional Submissions: No
You can make a submission to this magazine only once per submission period.
Additional submissions will be disregarded.
If the additional submission is not noticed initially, it will be disregarded during the review process.
To submit different poems, visit the main SWAV Poetry Submissions page,
and submit to other opportunities that you are eligible for.
Updating Submissions
The best practice is to spend time and consideration preparing your submission.
Edit your work carefully and be certain you are ready to submit the final version of your work.
If necessary, you can update your submission once only.
You must send the update before the submission deadline.
After the submission deadline, a submission cannot be updated.
To update your submission, send a new submisson containing all required components,
making sure to add the word, "UPDATED" to the email subject header and the beginning of the email.
Your original submission will be deleted and replaced by the Updated Submission.
If you do not specify that it is an Updated Submission,
it may be considered as an Additional Submission and disregarded.
Withdrawing Submissions
Until the submission deadline, you can withdraw your submission with an email without the need to provide an explanation.
After the submission deadline passes and the review period begins, withdrawing your submission can affect the review process and decisions about other submissions.
Therefore, after the submission deadline, withdrawing your submission is possible,
but will result in a permanent prohibition from submitting to any publications published and edited by myself, Kirk Ramdath,
unless there is an urgent reason for the withdrawal.
Please do not submit any work that you are not fully intending to publish if accepted.
Notice of Acceptance
Accepted submissions will be notified by the dates mentioned above in the "Dates for Notice of Acceptance" section.
Submissions that are not accepted for publication will no longer receive a direct notice of rejection.
Instead, once the the Date for Notice passes, which is two months following the close of submissions,
submissions that have not been notified as accepted will expire.
Submission Status Page
The Date for Notice of Acceptance is the latest date that results will be available.
Every effort will be made to complete reviewing at an earlier time.
As soon as reviewing is completed and accepted submissions are notified,
the waxpoetryart.com Submissions Status webpage will be updated.
Check the Submission Status page at any time to view the status of your submission.
Accepted poems will be published online in SWAV Poetry Europe and also featured in the SWAV Poetry Collection, which is published in the SWAV Poetry Library.
Accessible to All
This publication is available to the public for free.
All published work is accessible to anyone who has access to the internet.
This means that you will be able to share your work with as many people as possible.
Even for experienced artists, it is rare to have a published work that all family, friends, fans, colleagues, and truly, the entire world can enjoy.
SWAV Poetry World Cup Qualification
Every poem accepted and published in this publication qualifies for entry into the SWAV Poetry World Cup.
The most-read poems from eight different countries published in all SWAV Poetry publications during the calendar year will be chosen to represent their nations
during the SWAV Poetry World Cup that will happen the next year after publication, on January 15th.
Copyright
Copyright of the poem remains with the original artist.
First Publication
Upon acceptance, the poet grants the publisher, Florencia Bay Books, the right to the first publication of the poem,
as well as the right to republish the poem in SWAV Poetry and waxpoetryart.com anthologies and collections,
without additional permission required.
Agree Not to Move, Alter, or Delete Poem
Once the poem is accepted, it must remain at the link you provided perpetually, so that it will always be accessible from this publication, once it is published.
You may upload as many new versions as you like at any time after publication, as long as the version you submitted remains at the link you provided.
Artist Page and Artist Collection
All published artists receive an SWAV Poetry Artist Page.
The Artist Page will house the artist's biography and the list of their publications across all SWAV Poetry publications.
Once the artist accumulates 12 publications on their Artist Page, and every 12 publications thereafter, an Artist Collection will be published in the Library.
Artist Collection Queue
The Artist Collection will be published at the next publication date from when their 12th publication is acquired.
For example, if the artist achieves 12 publications at the May 15th publication date, their Artist Collection will be published on September 15th.
However, if there is already an Artist Collection slated for publication, the artist will join the Artist Collection queue.
Only one Artist Collection will be published at a time to ensure that each artist receives the fullest spotlight possible.
Once an artist achieves 12 publications, they will be informed, after publication, when their Artist Collection will be published.
If multiple artists achieve 12 publications at the same date,
the artist with the earliest first publication on their artist page will go ahead of the others.
If still tied, the number of pageviews on their first publication will be used as a tie-breaker.
National and Other Collections
In addition to being added to their own artist page, new publications are also added to the
Countries page for their nation.
Once a country accumulates 24 publications, and every 24 publications thereafter, a National Collection will be published in the Library.
As well, collections based on specific themes may be assembled and published at any publication date.
There is no additional payment or royalty advance for inclusion in a National or other collection.
There will not be additional notifications if your work is included in a National or other collection that is published online.
You will be notified if your work appears in an online collection and is chosen to be published in a print version of the collection.
If multiple nations achieve 24 publications at the same date, a National Collection queue will form,
with the same considerations as Artist Collection queues, described above.
A country that joins the National Collection queue that has not published a National Collection previously may jump ahead of a country
that has already published a National Collection, at the editor's discretion.
Initial Payment: No
There is no initial payment upon publication.
Additional Rights Granted
The artist also grants the publisher the right to share the work or parts of the work, as applicable, on third party platforms such as Facebook and other social media,
specifically for the purpose of sharing the work and the artist with more people, and considering the evolving and experimental nature of the Internet.
Editor's Right to Edit
The editor reserves the right to make whatever changes are deemed necessary, at any time, to ensure that publication occurs.
Email Subject Header
Use the following statement as your email subject header:
– "SWAV Poetry Europe submission."
No Attachments for Text (Reminder)
The entire submission must be copied and pasted or manually transcribed into the body of a single email and sent to the email address shown below.
Do not include any text of your submission in an attachment.
Submission Checklist
Submissions must include the following four components.
1) Agreement Statement.
"I agree with the guidelines for submissions to SWAV Poetry Europe."
2) Poem.
Submit to the link to where the audio or video file is hosted on a site such as Soundcloud or YouTube.
Keyword Suggestions (Optional).
Suggest three keywords or short phrases.
3) Biography.
4) Postal Mailing Address / Address of Residence.
– Legal Name:
– Street Number and Name:
– City:
– Province/State:
– Country:
– Postal Code:
– (Optional) Phone / WhatsApp:
Send your submission by email to info@florenciabaybooks.com.
About the Editor
Kirk Ramdath is the publisher, editor, and designer of SWAV Poetry and the waxpoetryart.com publications.
He has read and performed at poetry events in Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, and many other cities in Canada.
Kirk had the honour of opening the world-famous Peace Bridge in Calgary in 2012.
He has been a publisher since 2005.
He also organized many dozen poetry events, around the 2010s.
Particularly, open-mic poetry events with a featured artist.
Kirk's first book, Love in a Handful of Dust, was published by Frontenac House in 2011, and will be republished by Florencia Bay Books in 2025.
He has three other poetry books near completion.
In 2002, Kirk obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, with Distinction, and a Minor in Philosophy from the University of Calgary, in Canada.
Kirk was born in Trinidad and Tobago, moved to Canada at age 10 with his family, and now writes and publishes from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.
Return to SWAV Poetry Submissions
SWAV Poetry Europe is part of SWAV Poetry and waxpoetryart.com.
- Visit the SWAV Poetry Submissions page to see all opportunities.
- Visit the SWAV Poetry Library.
- This website and all contents ©Kirk Ramdath and specified artists.
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