Deadlines: April & May 2020
Every 15th of the month: new deadlines, new contests, and new opportunities for your voice to find the world. The next six weeks include: our own Emerging Poet Prize, Ploughshares, Newfound, Live Cannon’s International Poetry Contest, Ruth Lilly Fellowship and more. Powered by Literistic!
FEATURED: 4/19
Our Emerging Poet Prize
So excited for this year’s EPP—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic, is judging this year. If you have fewer than two full-length publications, please send us 3 of your best poems. $3500 will be awarded, plus publication.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 4/15
The Loraine Williams Poetry Prize
The Loraine Williams Poetry Prize is an award for a single poem, to be published in The Georgia Review. An entry may include one, two, or three poems, but no more than a total of ten standard pages in 12-point or larger type. The winner will receive an honorarium of $1,500 and an expenses-paid trip to Athens, Georgia, to give a public reading. All submitted poems will be considered for publication in The Georgia Review.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 4/20
paper nautilus Chapbook Contests
Manuscripts may be between 16–24 pages (or less than ~9000 words for prose). The Debut Series Chapbook Contest is open only to writers who have not yet published a full-length manuscript or chapbook in any genre; the prize is 50 perfect-bound copies of your winning chapbook, to use however you’d like. The Vella Chapbook Contest prize is 100 copies of your winning chapbook, to use however you’d like. Thematically-linked works are encouraged, but not required.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 4/24
CV2 2-Day Poem Contest
This annual contest challenges you to write an original poem in 48 hours — with only one catch. The final poem must include ten words that we provide. Each word must be spelled exactly as provided and must be used in proper context to qualify. First Prize: $500 plus a one-year subscription and publication in CV2 magazine.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 4/30
The Iowa Poetry Prize
The Iowa Poetry Prize, open to new as well as established poets, is awarded for a book-length collection of poems written originally in English. Manuscripts should be 50 to 150 pages in length. Poems included in the collection may have appeared in journals or anthologies. The winning manuscript will be published by the University of Iowa Press under a standard royalty agreement.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 4/30
Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships
Five fellowships in the amount of $25,800 each will be awarded to young poets in the U.S. through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. Established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly, the fellowships are intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Please submit ten pages of poems. Applicants must reside in the U.S. or be U.S. citizens.
DEADLINE: 5/1
Peseroff Prize Poetry Contest
The Peseroff Prize honors Joyce Peseroff’s work as a poet, teacher, editor, innovator, and mentor. She helped found the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston, served as its first director, and retired from teaching in 2014. Submit up to three poems and a $10 entry fee. There are no restrictions on content or form: “it’s all poetry.”
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 5/1
Prairie Schooner
Prairie Schooner publishes short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. For poetry, send a selection of 5-7 poems contained within a single document. For fiction, essays, and reviews, send only one selection at a time (though book reviews may consider two or three books in conversation).
DEADLINE: 5/3
Bomb Poetry Contest
This year’s winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB’s print quarterly. Manuscripts may contain no more than 5 poems and no more than 10 pages.
DEADLINE: 5/13
2020 Live Canon International Poetry Competition
The overall winner of this year’s competition for individual poems will be awarded a £1000 prize. 16 poems will be shortlisted and performed by the Live Canon Ensemble at our annual prize-giving event. 50 poems will be longlisted and published in our annual anthology. There will be a £100 prize for the best poem submitted by someone living, working or studying in the London Borough of Greenwich.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 5/14
Newfound
We welcome short stories and self-standing novel excerpts of any length, creative nonfiction pieces of any length, up to 6 poems totaling no more than 10 pages, and up to 3 flash fiction stories per submission. Flash, micro, and hybrid work—if it’s brief (<1,000 words) and cutting edge, fiction or nonfiction, we’re publishing it.
DEADLINE: 5/15
Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize
The Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize honors the late Stanley Kunitz’s dedication to mentoring poets. The winning poem will appear on the feature page of the September/October issue of The American Poetry Review, and the poet will receive a prize of $1,000. Poets may submit one to three poems per entry (totalling no more than three pages). Poets must be under 40 years of age.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 5/15
Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest
Chapbooks are a huge milestone for emerging poets, and we’re always looking forward to the Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest—where we get to find that one electric bundle of poems that rocks our world in less than 30 pages. The winner of the FDCC will receive $2000 and publication of the free, downloadable chapbook on Frontier. Contest is open for international poets, but the poems must be in English. Manuscript should be 10-30 pages and should be on the whole unpublished, although individual poems can be previously published.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 5/15
Ploughshares Emerging Writers Contest
The Emerging Writer’s Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The winner in each genre will be awarded publication, $2000, review from Aevitas Creative Management, and a 1-year subscription. You are eligible if you have yet to publish a book (including chapbooks, eBooks, translations, books in other languages/countries, and self-published works) and have no book forthcoming before April 15, 2021. Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words. Poetry: 3-5 pages. The winning story, essay, and poems from the 2020 contest will be published in the Winter 2020-21 issue of Ploughshares.
Reading Fee