Open Call for Dhanakosa Poetry Anthology

One meaning of Dhanakosa is ‘storehouse of treasure’ and it lives up to its name as a precious  and significant place for all those who have stayed there on retreat, many of whom keep returning. Some people arrive with the specific intention to write poetry, others find themselves inspired and writing it anyway, even if they’ve never put pen to paper before. As a result of a generous offering, a small but beautiful print anthology of poems will be published in early summer 2027 to coincide with Dhanakosa’s 35 th anniversary – and you are warmly invited to submit your poems to be considered for inclusion. 

Working with Sukhema and Tim Mason, editor Linda France FRSL is looking for well-made, heartful poems that will bring Dhanakosa vividly to mind as well as take readers by surprise. These might be poems that capture the essence of the place in its magnificent setting in Balquidder Glen; poems that evoke a particular mood or experience in one particular wide-awake moment; poems calling in the remarkable birdlife, fauna and flora, people and weather passing through; poems written there and then or poems revisited later from notes, traces of memories and the long tail of a retreat experience. 

What are the treasures you’ve discovered at Dhanakosa? 

What impressions shaped into a poem would you like a chance to share?

Unpublished or previously published poems in any form, up to 40 lines in length, are welcome. Entries will be read and selected anonymously by Sukhema and Linda France. There is no payment for publication, however all poets chosen will receive a free copy of the anthology. Income from sales will be donated to Dhanakosa.

Submission Guidelines 

The submission window for the Dhanakosa Poetry Anthology is 15th August – 30th November 2026. Do not send us your work outside the submission window as it will not be read. Please follow the guidelines below when sending us your poems. We expect (hope!) to have a lot of poems to read, so please make it as easy as possible for us to read yours. 

1) You can send up to 3 poems, maximum 40 lines each, not counting titles, dedications, epigraphs or stanza breaks. 

2) Poems in some way inspired by Dhanakosa can be in English, Scots or Gaelic. If you are sending a poem in Gaelic, please add an English (verse or prose) translation. If you are writing in non-standard Scots or English and wish to provide a glossary for any particularly rare or local word or phrase, by all means do so. Glossaries/translations, if provided, will not count as part of the total line length. 

3) Poems must be the original work of the person sending them and if previously published, please include the credit and permission in your covering email. 

4) Bearing in mind all the poems in the anthology will in some way be ‘about’ Dhanakosa, if you use the word ‘Dhanakosa’ in your current title, you are encouraged to consider an alternative. 

5) We can only accept poems via email. Please send as a single attachment in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Please note the number of lines at the end of each poem and do not include your name anywhere on your poem pages. Use a standard font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, at 11 or 12 point. We cannot accept work in other formats. 

i) If you are sending prose poetry, give the line-count relative to an A4 page, following the font size guideline above. 

ii) If you are sending concrete or visual poetry or other poetry where the formatting on the page is important, please send a pdf as well as the .doc/.docx/.rtf version. 

6) Send your poems to playspacepublications@gmail.com as an attachment to an email with Dhanakosa Poetry Anthology as the subject-line. The body of the email should contain your name as you wish it to be used on publication, your postal address and contact telephone number, and the titles of your submitted poems. 

7) We must receive your poems no later than midnight on 30 th November 2026. You will hear within three months of the closing date whether your work has been accepted for publication. 

8) Editorial decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into, neither are we able to offer any comments or criticisms on your work. 

Thank you! We look forward to reading your poems.