Free State Review positions itself as a journal attentive to the capacious nature of poetry, as evidenced by its stated refusal to legislate what a poem must be. The editors frame their enterprise not as a platform for polemic but as a space where the poetic might be recognized without prescription. This call for submissions is an invitation to contribute to that ongoing conversation, with accepted work granted First North American Serial Rights and subsequent web publication for up to six months following print. Rights revert to the author upon printing, with the request that prior publication in Free State Review be acknowledged should the work appear elsewhere. The journal's aesthetic temperament can be inferred from its editorial voice: wry, unpretentious, and allergic to the merely decorative. The closing admonition against oyster poems signals a fatigue with a certain strain of workshop-ready imagery, suggesting instead a preference for work that resists easy categorization. The editors are not seeking to answer what a poem is; they are seeking poems that make the question worth asking. Submissions are read with the understanding that simultaneous submissions are permitted, provided the journal is notified. This is a reading fee of $3.50, a modest sum that nonetheless positions the journal within the contemporary landscape of paying markets. There is no prize attached, only publication. The deadline is exact: December 1, 2026.