Genre: Poetry

Fischer Prize

Talking Gourds
Entry Fee: 
$12
Deadline: 
August 31, 2025
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. Art Goodtimes will judge. Submit a poem of up to 125 lines totaling no more than three pages with a $12 entry fee ($30 for three poems) by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

St. Lawrence Book Award

Black Lawrence Press
Entry Fee: 
$30
Deadline: 
August 31, 2025
A prize of $1,000, publication by Black Lawrence Press, and 10 author copies is given annually for a debut collection of poems, short stories, or essays. The editors and a panel of previous St. Lawrence Book Award winners will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a poetry manuscript of 45 to 95 pages or a prose manuscript of 120 to 280 pages with a $30 entry fee by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Oregon Book Awards

Literary Arts
Entry Fee: 
$55
Deadline: 
September 5, 2025
Four prizes of $1,000 each are given annually for books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and general nonfiction published in the current year by writers living in Oregon. Publishers, authors, and members of the public may submit three copies of a book published between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2025, with a $55 entry fee by September 5. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Tenth Gate Prize

The Word Works
Entry Fee: 
$25
Deadline: 
July 15, 2025
A prize of $1,000, publication by the Word Works, and 30 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has published at least two full-length books of poetry. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 48 to 80 pages with a $25 entry fee (a limited number of fee waivers are available based on financial need) by July 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Most Wanted and Unwanted

The Time Is Now
6.17.25

To write their latest book, People’s Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels (Columbia University Press, 2025), Tom Comitta used data compiled from a specially designed national public opinion poll on literary preference and composed two novels: a formulaic, fast-paced thriller and an experimental epistolary sci-fi romance with elderly aristocratic tennis players as protagonists. Responses to the poll included preferences and aversions to attributes such as characters’ identities, genre, verb tense, setting, and point of view. Taking a cue from this project, jot down a brief list of what you would guess to be the most and least desired attributes of poetry, including rhyme, length, diction, and imagery. Write a “Most Wanted Poem” and “Most Unwanted Poem” based on your list. How do your own idiosyncrasies and thoughts around literary taste infiltrate each piece?

When in Rome

The Time Is Now
6.10.25

The poems in Charity E. Yoro’s debut collection, Ten-cent Flower & Other Territories (First Matter Press, 2023), largely circle around the political history and her personal experience of the Hawaiʻian islands. Her poem “postcard from rome” takes on the feeling of a postcard that arrives unexpectedly in the mail—a surprising and sudden intrusion of an exotic locale. This week, write a poem titled “Postcard From…” and think back to your memories of visiting a new place. Try to reach far from what’s currently at the forefront of your mind, as well as the themes and topics you typically explore in your poetry. Allow this poem to drop in to your current body of writing like a short, evocative glimpse of another time and place—a gentle disruption to your usual flow.

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