Is there a way to let readers submit posts?

have u tried giving them the role Contributor?

Sure that is one way, however that means I would have to change all new subscribers roles manually. I’d like even non subscribers to be able to submit a post…

I know you can do this in joomla but I like wordpress better

change the registration default to contributor… not subscriber.
you can do this by going to setting and then go to “new user default role.” it’s probably set to subscriber so just change it to contributor.

try the tdo mini forms plugin.

https://thedeadone.net/download/tdo-mini-forms-wordpress-plugin/

Or try this plugin:

https://www.frank-verhoeven.com/wordpress-plugin-fv-community-news/

This should do the trick. ??

thanks everyone for your help!