Genre: Poetry

Steve Kowit Poetry Prize

San Diego Entertainment & Arts Guild
Entry Fee: 
$15
Deadline: 
October 15, 2025
A prize of $1,000 and publication in San Diego Poetry Annual is given annually for a single poem. The winner also receives an invitation to read at an award ceremony in April 2026. Maria Mazziotti Gillan will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a poem of any length with a $15 entry fee, which includes a digital copy of San Diego Poetry Annual, by October 15. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry

University of Mississippi
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
September 30, 2025
A prize of $3,000 is given annually for a single poem that evokes the U.S. South. The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi, for the awards ceremony in March 2026. Submit one poem of up to 60 lines by September 30. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Rome Prize

American Academy in Rome
Entry Fee: 
$50
Deadline: 
November 1, 2025
Half-term and full-term fellowships of $16,000 and $30,000 respectively are given annually to artists, academics, and creative writers, including poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers, to support the development of a project. In addition to a stipend, the fellows are each provided with meals, a private workspace, and a bedroom with a private bathroom as they join the Academy’s residential community on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, alongside other fellows and visiting artists and scholars. All applicants, except those applying for the National Endowment for the Humanities postdoctoral fellowships, must be U.S. citizens at the time of their application. Writers who in the past six years have published a book in their respective genre are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit up to 20 pages of poetry or prose, a résumé, a project proposal, and contact information for three references with a $50 entry fee by November 1 (or an $80 entry fee by November 15). Visit the website for complete guidelines.

John Updike Tucson Casitas Fellowship

John Updike Society
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
November 1, 2025
A prize of $1,000 and a two-week residency at the Mission Hill Casitas that John Updike owned and worked out of in Tucson is given annually for a group of poems or a work of fiction or nonfiction. The fellowship selection committee will judge. Submit five pages of poetry or prose (excerpts from a longer work are accepted), a brief bio, and a project description in a single PDF by November 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize

Saturnalia Books
Entry Fee: 
$30
Deadline: 
November 1, 2025
A prize of $2,000 and publication by Saturnalia Books is given annually for a poetry collection in translation. Translators who identify as female (including those who are assigned-female-at-birth [AFAB] nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, and intersex) and who are translating the work of a woman poet (including those who are AFAB nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, and intersex) are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 48 to 120 pages with a $30 entry fee by November 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes

University of Wisconsin Press
Entry Fee: 
$28
Deadline: 
September 15, 2025
Two prizes of $1,500 each and publication by University of Wisconsin Press are given annually for poetry collections. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 50 to 90 pages with a $28 entry fee by September 15. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Garrett Hongo and Edward Hirsch

Caption: 

In this Poets House event, Garrett Hongo reads from his fourth poetry collection, Ocean of Clouds (Knopf, 2025), and Edward Hirsch reads from his new memoir, My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy (Knopf, 2025), followed by a conversation between the authors about their friendship and humor.

Genre: 
Poetry
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Garrett Hongo
Ocean of Clouds
Edward Hirsch
My Childhood in Pieces
memoir
Knopf
Poets House
reading
2025

Details and Images

The Time Is Now
8.5.25

“If the dandelion on the sidewalk is / mere detail, the dandelion inked on a friend’s bicep / is an image because it moves when her body does,” writes Rick Barot in his poem “The Wooden Overcoat,” published in Poetry magazine in 2012. The speaker of the poem draws a distinction between a “detail” and an “image” defining the latter as something connected to a larger context and personal history that is “activated in the reader’s senses beyond mere fact.” Compose a poem that experiments with this distinction, perhaps incorporating both a “detail” and an “image” so that each functions in an intentional way. You could consider beginning with an item and slowly shifting the reader’s understanding of its significance as the poem progresses. Look to Barot’s poem for inspiration on form and use of space.

Ordinary Devotion

The Time Is Now
7.29.25

Many poems are written in the heat of falling in love with someone or something, with descriptions of desire, first touches, and breathless beginnings. But what happens after the crescendo when routine replaces urgency, when glances no longer surprise, and when love becomes less about being seen and more about staying? Write a poem about what it feels like to love someone or something after the rush. You could write about a partner, a city, a craft, or a version of yourself. Focus on the quiet gestures, the dailiness, and the things you no longer say out loud. How does love change when it no longer needs to perform?

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