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Railroad Poetry Project

Based in the U.K., Railroad Poetry Project was founded by a writer of ‘beat’ poetry who is sixty-something years late and on the wrong side of the pond. The experience of writing poetry that rarely fits the criteria of most publications and presses encouraged the poet to seek out folk with a similar problem. It quickly became evident that there are many talented and frustrated poets facing the same issue: receiving rejection letters that give such feedback as ‘It’s just not for us’ and ‘whilst I enjoyed reading your poems, which were very interesting, I’m afraid, the style does not fit that of the press.’ The problem is, for poetry that works outside of current trends and contemporary styles, there are few places to submit.
In a grass roots approach, Railroad was set up in the hope of offering those writers who feel their work is overlooked or out of time, a place to showcase their poetry.
Railroad poetry project seeks poetry that is beat, beatnik, avant-garde, experimental or anything in-between. We want poetry that lives by its own rules, poetry that refuses categorization. Send us poems that were scribbled on the run, in the dark, poems that simply had to be written. We have a passion for poetry that is carved out of the unlikely or the impossible.

The Railroad ‘Unadulterated Creativity’ Promise

“If most editors don’t want it – we probably will”

There are no restrictions on poem content, theme, length or form: if you want to send to us, we want your work. We don’t want you to feel turned away by our ‘guidelines’ – so we haven’t got any. We thrive on poetry, and we want as much of it as we can get. Your creativity will roll into ours; the creative beat then moves into our online issues, as your work comes together with ours to form part of our online magazine, a beatific shrine to pure, unadulterated creativity.
“You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin” – Stanley Kunitz