HerStry's Winter 2027 issue will be organized around the theme 'Light,' a provocation that asks poets to consider illumination in its many registers—the literal and the metaphorical, the enduring and the ephemeral. The editors seek work that plumbs the depths of the human story: what it means to light up, to shine bright, and, crucially, to sometimes fizzle out. This is not a call for mere brightness but for complexity, for poems that acknowledge the full arc of radiance and its extinguishing. The magazine maintains a blind reading process. Manuscripts are evaluated without identifying information, and any submission found to contain such information will be discarded unread. This policy underscores a commitment to assessing the work itself rather than the writer's reputation or publication history. HerStry explicitly states that it does not require a cover letter and will not read one if submitted; the editors are interested solely in the quality of the poems in front of them. They also express a genuine enthusiasm for publishing new writers. Submissions may include up to three poems in a single document. A reading fee of $3.00 (USD) applies. There is no prize associated with this call; accepted work will be published in the Winter 2027 issue. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2026. The editors have provided no further guidelines beyond these parameters, so poets should adhere strictly to the stated requirements.