The Friendship Book is a charming little book that we publish every year.
It features illustrated verse, reflective thoughts and country lore. A new passage for every day of the year to uplift and comfort our readers.
Unlike our other publications, The Friendship Book follows a strict template.
That means the poetry we include must adhere to specific lengths.
I’ll start reserving poetry for our 2023 edition in the next few months.
If you fancy writing a poem for inclusion, take a look at the lengths we need for each date and see if something sparks your imagination.
Intro Poem
Our all-important introductory poem is 12 lines long.
January
Date | Number of lines |
January 1 | 12 lines |
January 21 | 12 lines |
January 27 | 16 lines |
February
Date | Number of lines |
February 4 | 12 lines |
February 14 | 10 lines |
February 25 | 12 lines |
March
Date | Number of lines |
March 3 | 6 lines |
March 12 | 16 lines |
March 17 | 16 lines |
April
Date | Number of lines |
April 5 | 8 lines |
April 20 | 12 lines |
May
Date | Number of lines |
May 1 | 8 lines |
May 10 | 16 lines |
May 22 | 10 lines |
May 26 | 14 lines |
June
Date | Number of lines |
June 2 | 14 lines |
June 23 | 10 lines |
June 28 | 8 lines |
July
Date | Number of lines |
July 20 | 12 lines |
August
Date | Number of lines |
August 18 | 16 lines |
August 22 | 8 lines |
September
Date | Number of lines |
October 2 | 16 lines |
October 14 | 10 lines |
October
Date | Number of lines |
October 2 | 16 lines |
October 14 | 10 lines |
November
Date | Number of lines |
November 15 | 10 lines |
November 25 | 8 lines |
December
Date | Number of lines |
December 8 | 12 lines |
December 30 | 20 lines |
We tend not to get too many poems submitted for the 6 and 14 line slots so I’m keen to get lots of these ahead of time!
Themes and tone
So what kind of poetry are we looking for?
The best way to get a feel of the poetry we publish in The Friendship Book, is to read a previous edition.
But a great thing to keep in mind is that we always like to leave our readers feeling uplifted.
The poetry in The Friendship Book is reflective, thoughtful and gentle. Themes include nature, faith and hope.
Remember, we also ask for poems to rhyme.
How to submit a poem
If you’ve had poems published in the “Friend” in recent years, please feel free to email your submission to me.
We’re asking that all writers who have not had a poem published by us previously, to please post your submission to our office.
The address can be found in our submissions guideline for poetry.
We are unable to make exceptions as this would not be fair to other writers waiting to hear back about their own submission.
As soon as I’m able to, I’ll return to the office to pick up all poetry submissions.
Keep an eye on the Fiction section of our website for more guides to writing poetry for our other annual publications.