Historical Submission Guidelines
The Magazine's Editorial Approach
Breadcrumb Scabs sought powerful confessional poetry for its monthly issues. Its editors believed the best contemporary verse came from poets willing to take risks, embrace discomfort, and trust their own honest voices.
What We're Looking For
The magazine published poetry that refused to look away: work exploring the messy, complicated and unflattering aspects of human experience, combining beauty with ugliness, love with cruelty, and hope with despair.
Its ideal submissions:
- Embrace confessional mode without self-indulgence
- Use specific, visceral imagery
- Take formal or thematic risks
- Reveal rather than conceal emotional complexity
- Trust readers to handle difficult content
- Balance sentimentality with grittiness
The editors particularly welcomed work by queer poets and women writers, while considering all poets who shared the magazine's aesthetic vision. International submissions were encouraged.
Submission Guidelines
What Poets Sent
- Poetry: 3-5 poems per submission
- Length: Any length, though most published poems are 20-60 lines
- Previously Published: The magazine accepted simultaneous submissions but required notification if work was accepted elsewhere
- Format: Standard manuscript format, Times New Roman or similar readable font
How Submissions Worked
Breadcrumb Scabs no longer accepts submissions. The guidelines below describe what the magazine asked poets to send:
- Include all poems in a single document (Word or PDF)
- Use "Poetry Submission - [Your Name]" as subject line
- Include brief bio (50-100 words) in email body
- Attach poems as document, not in email body
Response Time
The magazine reported a median response time of 10 days and emphasized rapid, respectful communication with poets. Its policy was to give submissions a personal response rather than a form letter.
According to Poets & Writers, fast response times demonstrate respect for poets' time and work. Breadcrumb Scabs treated prompt decisions as an important part of its editorial practice.
How Submissions Were Reviewed
The editorial team reviewed submissions for both craft and vision: technical skill mattered, as did the courage to take risks and explore difficult territory.
Accepted poets received a contract outlining the publication timeline and rights. The magazine typically published accepted pieces within three months; poets retained their rights while granting first-publication rights and permission to keep the published work in the issue collection.
When work was declined, the editors often provided brief feedback about its fit with the magazine. Their guidance stressed that rejection reflected a particular editorial aesthetic rather than a blanket judgment of the poetry.
Themes We Gravitate Toward
Although the magazine did not publish themed issues, certain subjects consistently resonated with its editorial vision:
- Guilt: Moral complexity, complicity, the weight of conscience
- Grit: Survival, struggle, resilience without romanticization
- Sex: Desire in all forms, erotic ambiguity, embodied experience
- Scabs: Healing and reopening wounds, trauma and recovery
- Identity: Especially queer identity, gender fluidity, selfhood
- Mental Health: Depression, anxiety, psychological complexity
- Relationships: Love that's complicated, messy, difficult
What Doesn't Work for Us
The editors typically declined:
- Sentimental poetry that prioritizes comfort over honesty
- Abstract, overly intellectual work divorced from embodied experience
- Genre poetry (fantasy, sci-fi) unless it transcends genre conventions
- Poetry that tells rather than shows emotional states
- Work that relies heavily on clichéd imagery or phrasing
- Poetry written primarily for shock value without deeper resonance
For Visual Artists
The magazine occasionally featured visual art that complements its literary content - gritty, honest, unflinching work about human experience. Artists sent samples and a brief artist statement alongside written submissions.
Questions?
Poets uncertain whether their work fitted the magazine's aesthetic were encouraged to ask before submitting. The past issues give a sense of what it published.
These guidelines reflect a magazine that valued poetry willing to take risks and trusted honest language to reveal difficult truths.