It’s a real knife fight out there for poets. We’re upping the ante. One Shot Magazine gives every writer one chance to land the poem that matters. One submission. One poem. One shot. Forever. If we find out you’ve submitted more than once—even under another name—we’ll know. And we will find you.

We have no aesthetic preference. We like humor, heartbreak, melodrama, surrealism, quiet grief—whatever leaves an exit wound. Established or emerging, it doesn’t matter. Just send us your best work—the one you’d show God if you only got one chance. Give us your baby.

We’re an annual publication. Each year, the poems you send duke it out for survival. Ten emerge victorious. The rest face the firing squad.

This is Issue One—your shot at being part of a first-of-its-kind magazine built on risk, guts, and whatever passes for glory these days.

To submit, email a .docx file to oneshotmagazine.lit@gmail.com. Submissions are open November 1 – June 1 each year, with results announced soon after. Let the best poems survive.