Equinox, a biannual digital multimedia journal, showcases poets and artists. While solstices are the extremes of the year, an equinox is equidistant, poised on the edge of one thing or another, the cusp of change or transformation. With this archetypal significance in mind, Equinox strives to explore the contemplative and motivational power of writers and artists; to celebrate how word and image can create a world and then change it.  

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Submission
We invite you to send us your poems and art. We look for contemplative, argumentative, globally aware, despair-resistant, and apathy-abolishing works. 

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Submission Periods and Publication Dates:

We accept submissions via Submittable. ​

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Spring Submission Period: Our submission period begins on December 5, 2025 and ends on February 15, 2026. Our publication date is March 20, 2026.

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Vol 10, Spring 2026 Theme:

We invite you to explore our theme “Liminal Spaces.” As
usual, this theme is open-ended, as it can be addressed in physical, psychological, aesthetic, or spiritual terms—you name it. Liminal spaces are “in-between” places. These spaces might be physical (an empty hallway, a stairwell, an unused stadium, an abandoned mall, an old store marked “closed for business” etc.), seeming surreal and causing unease whether because of their emptiness, past memories of them, or their lack of normal purpose and associated activity.
Liminal spaces can also be psychological, as in states of transition (divorce, ending a relationship, changing careers, the summer before starting college, etc.) signaling a threshold between the past and the future, between the known and unknown. Such times can cause anxiety
and discomfort but they also bring new opportunities and even transformation. Aesthetically speaking, liminal spaces might feature images of vacant buildings, empty rooms, or transitions in nature (between light and darkness, between seasons, the space where the ocean meets the shore, where the sky meets the land, etc.) You might choose to write ekphrastic poetry responding to
artworks presenting such elements, or you might produce art of your own that features liminality. In spiritual terms, liminal spaces could include concepts of an afterlife, a haunted house, a portal, or even an alternate life in another universe—opening up this theme to fantasy, horror, speculative works, explorations of a possible world beyond the one we know. This theme is itself a liminal space waiting for you to fill it with your own singular response. We can’t wait to see the art and poetry that you submit to Equinox, Vol. 10. Our empty pages are waiting to be filled!​​​​

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Submission Guidelines:

1. You may submit up to 3 pieces in any one genre (poetry or image) for a reading fee of $5, which will be used toward ongoing programs and publications at hotpoet, and which will fund a $100 “best in show” prize for each category of work (poetry and image) in each edition of Equinox.

2. You may submit more than three pieces or in multiple genres, but separate submissions are needed to do so and separate reading fees will be assessed for each.

3. We do not accept previously published work, whether online, self-published, in chapbooks, in anthologies, or in literary journals. We do accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you immediately withdraw any piece that gets accepted elsewhere for publication.

4. All submissions must be in standard font and formatting. Poetry should be single spaced with double spacing between stanzas. Prose should be double-spaced and include a word count. There is no line limit for poetry.  Images should be in png or jpg format.

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Fall Submission: June through August 5th with a publication date of September 22nd.

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Fall  Theme: To be announced

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