Comstock Review

11/07/2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUlNixgSQIA

The legendary Patti Smith, often called “the godmother of punk,” performs her 2004 song “Peaceable Kingdom” accompanied by Tony Shanahan. Grab a copy of Patt...

11/07/2025

10/31/2025

Although it is still the last day of The Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest (YOU CAN STILL ENTER!)
I think that it is late enough in the game to thank everyone who has participated again in our contest. It looks like another record-breaking year for chapbook submissions.

There is no way to really tell all of you what it means to us that you have supported The Comstock Review for close to Forty years now - we could have done none of this without you.

You are the ones who have built this magazine and loved it and kept it going, - all your amazing work, all your honest and heartfelt work - all those lovely and horrible and transcendent pieces of your life, passed on to us to pass on to the world.

(OK, WE DO THE PAPERWORK.)

So, our editors thank you, Carolyn and I thank you, and the readers thank you. We should give us of us a round of applause.
Can you hear me?

I have been hearing you for thirty years.
(that makes me the new guy)
And no, i will never tire of it.

You make me want to write more. Listen better.
Think, laugh grieve.

And there is still time to enter - the day is longer than you think.
And also, younger.

It is still Hallowe'en!! Boo!

DON'T FORGET OUR FREE OPEN READING BEGINS 1/1/26
(is it 2026 already?)

!!!!SUBSCRIBE!!!

Love to all

John M Bellinger
Carolyn Ostrander

Managing Editors

The Comstock Review

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

10/29/2025

THREE DAYS (PLUS A FEW HOURS) LEFT/Contest ends Hallowe'en
JESSIE BRYCE NILES 2025 What are you waiting for?

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

10/12/2025

09/30/2025

IT DOEN'T MATTER WHERE YOU START. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
JESSIE BRYCE NILES MEMORIAL CHAPOOK AWARD 2025
DEADLINE HALLOWE'EN.

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

09/20/2025

THE Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Award Contest is OPEN.

Judge Georgia A. Popoff

Closes Oct 31

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

09/10/2025

https://www.deerbrookeditions.com/somewhere-the-day-begins/

Another fine new book from one of our Poets! Congratulations Leonore Hildebrandt!!

All books have pages with autor information

07/17/2025

Once again, we have passed another contest year, and once again we at The Comstock Review would like to thank everyone who took the time to send us your work.

It has been another record year for submissions, and in these very difficult times, there are no words to adequately convey how much that means, and how much our readers and authors have meant to us.

We are humbled.

As we approach our 40th anniversary (it seems unbelievable!) we want to thank you again for being such amazing and conscientious writers. Poetry matters, you are telling us, and it matters now as much as it ever did. We all feel it in our bones.

Onward, my poet friends, onward. We will be here as long as you want us to be here. And we are ever grateful for that. Wherever life takes you, poetry will come along.

Embrace it.

with love,
your Editors.

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

06/04/2025

CONGRATULATIONS TO

MAURA STANTON– “Werner Herzog’s Ecstasy”

OUR FIRST PUSHCART WINNER

AND TO OUR NOMINEES

Paula Colangelo – “Saudade”
Marda Messick – “Tight-Lipped Red-Lipped Ode”
Jacalyn Shelley – “The Annunciation”
Lisken Van Pelt Dus – “In the Beginning”
Alison Stone – “Demeter in Spring”

All of these fine poems can be found in our Summer 2024 Issue
(Vol. 38.1)
ORDER YOUR COPY
or Subscribe today!

comstockreview.org

06/03/2025

WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE
That we have a Pushcart Prize Winner!

"Werner Herzog's Ecstasy" by Maura Stanton

will be awarded the prize and published in the
2026 "Best of the Small Presses" Anthology

comstockreview.org

hooray for poetry!

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.

05/23/2025

https://comstockreview.submittable.com/submit/324740/2024-prize-chapbook-lost-dogs-by-mary-lou-brockett-devine

NOW AVAILABLE
OUR 2024 CHAPBOOK WINNER, "LOST DOGS"
by Mary-Lou Brockett-Devine
$16.00 (from Submittable - link above)
or comstockreview.org

The Comstock Review has been publishing poetry since 1986 and each year runs an annual poetry contest plus a chapbook contest.