Through the Gate is a literary journal of fantastical poetry. It was founded in 2012 by Mitchell Hart, who continues to edit it. Over the years, Through the Gate has published some of the finest voices working in speculative poetry. Pieces found in Through the Gate have been nominated for the Rhysling Award, as well as the Dwarf Stars Award, with Loss by Sandi Leibowitz winning third place in 2017.

We strive to present a diversity of voices and seek to celebrate work by poets who identify as women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodiverse, and any other marginalized identity. In particular, we are interested in seeing work that considers race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, identity (multicultural, religious, etc.), and disability in original and meaningful ways. Even though we are a fantastical venue, we want to showcase poetry that derives from lived experience, that deals with the everyday intersections of identity, that centers a strong sense of emotion, perspective, and language.

Our publishing schedule is biweekly, meaning one poem every other week, except in February, May, August, and November, during which we publish one poem a week.

Founder & Editor

Mitchell Hart

Mitchell (they/them) is an acclaimed reader and grad student currently living in Massachusetts. They were the founder of the minimalistic speculative poetry journal, inkscrawl. In what little free time they have, they enjoy absurdly long walks, many pots of tea, and queer theory. They are the owner of Two Coins Publications, the publisher of Through the Gate. Ofttimes, they may be caught lurking on Twitter.