Smartish Pace

Since its founding in 1999, Smartish Pace has established itself as a premier independent literary journal dedicated to contemporary poetry. Known for its commitment to publishing both emerging and established poets, the magazine has built a reputation for its editorial excellence, thoughtful curation, and dedication to poetry as an evolving, dynamic art form. Unlike many university-affiliated literary journals, Smartish Pace is independently operated and run entirely by volunteers, making it a true labor of love for poetry and the literary community. Its mission is simple yet profound: to elevate voices that challenge, inspire, and expand the boundaries of modern poetry.

When Smartish Pace launched in 1999, it entered a literary landscape shaped largely by university-backed journals, long-standing endowed publications, and editorial boards tied to MFA programs. Most serious poetry outlets operated within academic structures that provided funding, faculty labor, and institutional prestige. Smartish Pace was built outside all of that. It was founded as a fully independent magazine, run entirely by volunteers, without a university budget, without graduate-student labor, and without the annual safety net of departmental funding cycles. That decision set it apart immediately and continues to define its identity more than two decades later.

The publication emerged from Baltimore under the direction of Stephen Reichert, who recognized a gap in the field: a need for a poetry journal guided by editorial judgment rather than institutional affiliation or internal politics. The question shaping the magazine’s formation was direct: What would a journal look like if every acceptance were based on the strength of the poem alone? Smartish Pace was built to answer that question in practice.

The early issues established the magazine’s position. Contributors included emerging writers with no prior publication history alongside poets already appearing in national journals, creating issues that reflected the real landscape of contemporary poetry rather than a curated hierarchy of “established” versus “new.” This approach allowed the magazine to develop a readership that trusted the editorial eye, not the résumé attached to a submission. It also positioned Smartish Pace as one of the few journals willing to take risks on poets before larger institutions noticed them.

The magazine’s independence demanded a level of consistency unusual for a volunteer-run publication. Without institutional support, everything—from curation to fundraising to production—required long-term commitment from its editors. That effort sustained the magazine through years when many other independent journals folded due to financial strain, staffing turnover, or reliance on short-term grant cycles. Surviving outside the university ecosystem became part of Smartish Pace’s credibility: a demonstration that a journal could operate with rigorous standards, national visibility, and editorial seriousness without institutional scaffolding.

For readers and writers tracking the evolution of U.S. poetry at the turn of the millennium, Smartish Pace became a reliable indicator of where new work was emerging and how contemporary forms were shifting. The early issues served as snapshots of the moment—accounts of how poets from diverse backgrounds, styles, and regions were shaping the field. That record continues today, grounded in the same principle that defined the magazine at its founding: publish the strongest work, regardless of where it comes from or who wrote it.

The cover of Smartish Pace Issue 31 features work by Erik Barthels (b. 1980), a Mandeville, Louisiana–based painter known for colorful abstractions shaped by chance-based processes and shifts in color and form. The decision to feature Barthels’ work reflects the magazine’s practice of treating each issue as a considered visual object, pairing contemporary poetry with strong, carefully selected artwork.

What Smartish Pace Publishes

The editorial scope of Smartish Pace reflects a clear commitment to documenting the full range of contemporary poetic practice. The magazine’s selections are guided by close reading rather than allegiance to a particular school, movement, or academic trend. As a result, the issues often show how multiple approaches to poetry coexist: traditional metrical forms, free verse, hybrid structures, lyric experiments, and work that occupies a space between genres.

Because the journal is not tied to a university department or a fixed pedagogical philosophy, it can publish poems that challenge prevailing workshop norms or resist the stylistic tendencies common in MFA programs. This independence allows the magazine to consider submissions on its own terms rather than in relation to institutional expectations. Consequently, Smartish Pace often features work that sits outside the dominant aesthetics of a given decade—poems that take risks in tone, voice, or structure without conforming to the conventions favored by academic presses.

Translations are a regular component of the magazine’s pages, offering readers access to international writers who may not yet have a significant presence in the U.S. literary market. The inclusion of translated poetry underscores the editors’ view that contemporary poetry is not solely a national conversation; it is shaped by linguistic and cultural exchange, and a serious journal must reflect that breadth.

Alongside the poems, Smartish Pace publishes interviews and essays that prioritize clarity over abstraction. These pieces engage directly with the practical concerns of writing—craft choices, artistic influences, and the mechanics of making poems that withstand scrutiny. The magazine treats these materials as extensions of the poems themselves, offering readers a more detailed understanding of how poets think about their work outside the printed line.

The cumulative effect is a publication that functions as a survey of current poetic practice. The variety of styles is not a gesture toward inclusivity for its own sake but a recognition that contemporary poetry moves along multiple trajectories at once. Smartish Pace documents those trajectories by presenting them side by side, allowing readers to see how different forms, voices, and methods are shaping the art in real time.

The cover of Smartish Pace Issue 29, designed by Chelsea Rowe, highlights the journal’s ongoing investment in working with contemporary designers whose visual sensibilities complement the magazine’s editorial aims. Rowe’s contribution reflects the publication’s broader practice of integrating strong design into each issue, reinforcing the care and professionalism that define its approach to independent publishing.

Supporting Poets Beyond Publication

Smartish Pace extends its work well beyond the printed issue, recognizing that a poetry journal shapes a community as much as it curates a page. The magazine organizes readings across the country, often in settings where poets can present new work directly to engaged audiences rather than relying solely on digital circulation. These events help maintain the public, conversational aspect of poetry at a time when many readings are restricted to university campuses or tied to institutional programming.

The magazine also administers a series of contests and awards that offer financial recognition to poets at various stages of their careers. For writers without access to fellowships or university support, these awards serve as practical resources—funds that can offset submission costs, provide time to write, or help sustain work between publications. The judging process reflects the journal’s editorial stance: decisions are made with an emphasis on the poem itself, not the résumé attached to it.

Digital access is another component of the magazine’s support system. Smartish Pace maintains an online archive that includes selected poems, interviews, and features, giving readers and researchers a point of entry into the magazine’s history without the barrier of paywalls or institutional subscriptions. This accessibility broadens the reach of the work and allows poets published in earlier issues to remain visible long after the print run has ended.

These efforts demonstrate how the magazine views its role: not simply as a venue that prints poems twice a year, but as a sustained presence in the field—one that provides poets with opportunities, visibility, and direct engagement beyond the confines of the page.

The cover of Smartish Pace Issue 26 features Still-life for George Herriman (2) by Dan Dudrow (born 1940), painted in 2016 and held in a private collection in Baltimore. The design was handled by editor Stephen Reichert.

Recognition and Influence

The influence of Smartish Pace can be traced through the afterlife of the poems it publishes. Work from the magazine is frequently selected for national anthologies such as The Best American Poetry and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, as well as daily platforms that track contemporary writing, including Verse Daily and Poetry Daily. These reprints reflect outside editorial judgment, offering an independent measure of how the magazine’s selections resonate beyond its own readership.

The magazine’s contributors include poets who were at early or transitional stages in their careers when they first appeared in its pages. Many have gone on to publish full-length collections with independent presses and university publishers, receive state and national arts grants, or secure fellowships at residencies that rely on publication history as part of their selection criteria. While Smartish Pace does not position itself as a launchpad in the formal sense, its track record shows that its pages are closely watched by editors, anthology selectors, and peers within the field.

The journal’s reputation within the poetry community is shaped not by branding campaigns or institutional affiliation but by consistent editorial discernment. Independent magazines often struggle to establish a recognizable standard because of limited resources and high turnover; Smartish Pace has maintained one for more than two decades. That continuity is evident in how frequently outside publications cite its issues when assembling reading lists, conference panels, or course syllabi focused on contemporary poetry.

In a field where influence is not determined by circulation numbers alone, Smartish Pace has become a reference point: a publication that readers and writers consult to understand which poets and which styles are gaining traction, and which voices are shaping the conversation at a given moment.

The cover of Smartish Pace Issue 25 uses a detail from As For Me I Am a Watercolor, I Wash Off by Chrissy Howland (born 1987). The issue’s design was executed by Stephen Reichert. By choosing Howland’s work—a modern, expressive piece—the magazine demonstrates its commitment to presenting contemporary poetry alongside fresh, visually engaging art that reflects the evolving sensibility of today’s literary and artistic scenes.

A Lasting Legacy in Contemporary Poetry

The continued presence of Smartish Pace is notable in a moment when independent journals routinely fold under financial strain, university presses reduce acquisitions, and arts coverage in major newspapers has been sharply cut. Its longevity reflects a structure designed to endure without institutional funding: a volunteer-run model, consistent editorial leadership, and a clear understanding of what it means to operate outside the academic and commercial systems that shape much of contemporary publishing.

The magazine’s relevance is reinforced by the pressures facing poets today. Book bans and curricular restrictions limit what is taught in classrooms. Consolidation across large publishing houses narrows the space available for debut collections. Many smaller journals have shifted entirely online or reduced their output, leaving fewer print venues where poems can receive careful editorial attention. In this environment, Smartish Pace functions as a stable point of access—a journal that maintains rigorous standards while remaining open to writers without institutional ties.

For poets, the value lies in more than publication credit. The magazine provides a readership that approaches each issue as part of an ongoing record of contemporary work, not as a compilation driven by trends. Appearing in its pages signals that the poem has been selected through a process grounded in careful reading rather than name recognition and that it will sit alongside work chosen with the same level of scrutiny.

For readers, the magazine offers continuity in a field that shifts quickly. Each issue reflects how poets are responding to current events, cultural changes, and evolving forms, providing a means of tracking the concerns and experiments defining a particular moment. The print format, produced with deliberate design decisions, preserves these contributions in a way that remains accessible long after online publications disappear.

As the literary world continues to face economic and political pressure, Smartish Pace demonstrates that an independent journal can remain both resilient and relevant. Its commitment to publishing strong work—regardless of origin, affiliation, or trend—has allowed it to hold a distinct place in contemporary poetry. The magazine endures because it has remained clear about its purpose of providing serious poems with a serious home.