Across its 40-issue history, Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry has gathered together and disseminated poems from across the globe that have addressed themes such as Science, Geography, Politics, (Auto)Biography, Belonging, Form, Indigenous, Reportage, Archive, Architecture, Extinction and many more. Rabbit Poetry is now moving into a new phase of showcasing exciting new ‘nonfiction poetry’ via the Rabbit Annual.

We are now open for submissions for this first ‘Annual’ of nonfiction poetry. We welcome poems that explore, interrogate and push the boundaries of nonfiction writing, and are interested in reading poetic engagements with auto/biography, documentary, history, politics, economics, mathematics, cultural analysis, science, the environment, and all other aspects of real-world experience, recollection and interpretation.

Your submission must include the following:

·  1-3 unpublished* poems (preferably in word doc, though pdf also acceptable)

·  A short bio (50 words max.)

·  A short answer to the following Rabbit prompt: Tell us about a nonfiction poem that you return to again and again and why

*We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know as soon as a submitted poem has been accepted elsewhere.

DEADLINE: 11:59pm, June 20, 2025

We are thrilled that our guest co-editors for this first Rabbit Annual are Mark Nowak (US) and Angela Costi (Australia).

Mark Nowak’s books include Shut Up Shut Down, Coal Mountain Elementary, Social Poetics, and …AGAIN (forthcoming), all from Coffee House Press. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim, Lannan, and Creative Capital foundations. Nowak recently wrote an introduction to Celes Tisdale’s When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal (Duke University Press, 2022). He is founding director of the Worker Writers School (https://www.instagram.com/workerwritersschool/).

Angela Costi is a poet and writer with a background in social justice, law and community arts. The author of six poetry collections, including Honey & Salt (Five Islands Press, shortlisted Mary Gilmore Prize 2008) and The Heart of the Advocate (Liquid Amber Press, 2025). Her chapbook Adversarial Practice (Cordite Poetry Review) was commended in the Wesley Michel Wright Prize. She won the University of Canberra’s Health Poetry Prize 2024. In 1995, she received a grant from the National Languages Board to study Ancient Greek drama in Greece. She is known as Αγγελική Κωστή among the Cypriot diaspora, her ancestry.

We are delighted to announce that we are reading manuscripts for the next suite of books in the Rabbit Poets Series. Submissions are open to Australian-based poets at all stages - emerging, mid-career or established. While we are keen to continue to see new poets into print, we are also keen to focus specifically on long form works of nonfiction poetry - e.g. documentary poetry, poetic life writing, poetic history, poetic biography, science poetry etc. - or manuscripts with a strong thematic through line.

Please note that, as we are not requesting a submissions fee for this process, we will not be able to provide feedback on submissions.

Submissions must be accompanied by:

- Bio 100 words max. 

- Overview of manuscript

- Full contact details: current address, phone, email

Begin each new poem on a new page. Generally (due to publishing/printing costs) our books are 65-90 pages in length. Please keep this in mind when submitting.