just femme + dandy’s 2026 POETRY CONTEST
To celebrate our first issue of POCKET SQUARE, our fashion album of queer journalism accompanied by a 7” vinyl of a queer musician, we’re holding a contest!
POCKET SQUARE is inspired by 1990s fashion magazines, independent queer journalism, and featured inserts packaged with vinyl, especially by indie musicians. Launching this fall, we’re celebrating this brand new venture with our first just femme + dandy POETRY CONTEST!
just femme + dandy’s POETRY CONTEST is open for submissions, and we’re thrilled to welcome 2020 National Book Award Finalist Tommye Blount as the judge for just femme + dandy’s inaugural contest.
Tommye Blount will select one winner to receive a $100 prize and publication in just femme + dandy’s POCKET SQUARE this fall, our physical album of queer fashion journalism and art, featuring a 7” vinyl from a queer indie musician. The winning poem will be printed as a small broadside as part of POCKET SQUARE. Second and third place receive a $50 prize and publication online. All entrants will be considered for publication.
This year’s theme is: POCKETS.
This call for submissions takes its name from our publishing project as well as its own inspiration, a square of fabric folded in a jacket’s breast pocket, starting in the 19th century. Pockets first emerged in clothing as purses or pouches attached to the outside of people’s garments. By the 16th century, sewn-in pockets appeared in menswear while women were given no choice but to continue using pouches for at least another two centuries.
Beyond the gender disparity of who gets to have pockets, they immediately became distrusted as a hidden danger, given that pistols were the first objects men stowed away in them. As fashion historian Hannah Carlson writes, “Once the wearer places something inside their pocket, that thing disappears, enfolded and seemingly absorbed into uncertain depths.”
Not only are pockets a source of intrigue for what they are able to hide and covet, but queer people also used them in order to signal to one another, such as the historical Hanky Code, a system of color-coded handkerchiefs tucked into a back pocket to identify the wearer’s desires, and it’s long been believed since the early twentieth century era of the Hays Code that lesbians (aka Marlene Dietrich) would reveal themselves by placing a single hand in their pocket.
We’re interested in reading poems about pockets, and what one stores in them, in all of their forms and meanings. Tell us about how long you searched for a dress with pockets, or the most unexpected gift you forgot you’d left in your favorite suit jacket. What secrets or joys would you hide in them? Recount the first time you learned how to sew one with your family’s sewing machine, or the love notes you tucked into your trapper keeper from your first crush.
How to Submit to the Contest
Submission period: August 1, 2026 to September 1, 2026 (at 11:59 ET)
Reading fee: $5
Each submission may contain no more than five poems and no more than ten pages.
Simultaneous submissions are permitted as long as you notify us if your poem is accepted elsewhere, but the fee is nonrefundable.
Note: Images are allowed as long as you have permissions to reproduce them.
SUBMIT HERE!
About the Judge
Tommye Blount was born and raised in Detroit. He holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and is the author of Fantasia for the Man in Blue (Four Way Books, 2020), a finalist for the National Book Award, and the chapbook What Are We Not For (Bull City Press, 2016). Blount is the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Kresge Arts in Detroit and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 2023, he received a Whiting Award in Poetry. A Cave Canem Fellow, Blount lives in Novi, Michigan.
Any questions or inquiries can be sent to addie@justfemmeanddandy.com.