Orison Chapbook Prize
Sponsor – Orison Books
Deadline Date – 01-Jul-2025
Funding – $300.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The sponsor accepts submissions of chapbook manuscripts (20 – 45 pp.) in any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, or hybrid) for The Orison Chapbook Prize, judged by Orison Books founder and editor, Luke Hankins.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Current or former students of the judge, or anyone with a close personal relationship with the judge, are not eligible to submit. Existing Orison Books authors are not eligible to submit. In the event that the judge does not select a winner, all entry fees will be refunded to the entrants.
The winner will be awarded publication, a $300 cash prize, and 20 copies of the chapbook, in addition to a standard royalties contract.
Creative Non-Fiction Contest
Sponsor – Room Magazine
Deadline Date – 01-Jun-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
Room Magazine invites submissions for its Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Each entry must be original and unpublished.
One submission includes one short story or essay of up to 3,500 words.
Underrepresented writers-including but not exclusive to women (cis and trans), trans men, Two-Spirit and non-binary writers who are Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, queer, and/or disabled-are particularly encouraged to submit.
The awards are as follows:
- First Prize: $1000 + publication in Room;
- Second Prize: $250 + publication in Room;
- Third Prize: $100 + publication on Room‘s website.
Annual Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition
Sponsor – Hudson Valley Writers’ Center
Deadline Date – 15-Jun-2025
Funding – $500.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The sponsor holds a chapbook competition. Manuscripts can either be a collection of poems or one long poem and should be a minimum of sixteen and a maximum of twenty pages (not including title page, table of contents, or cover sheet). All poems should be single spaced and printed in twelve point type. No more than one poem should appear on a page.
Manuscripts can either be a collection of poems or one long poem and should be a minimum of sixteen and a maximum of twenty pages (not including title page, table of contents, or cover sheet). All poems should be single spaced and printed in twelve point type. No more than one poem should appear on a page.
The contest is open to all writers. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a $15 reading fee and a $2 Submittable fee. BIPOC writers only need to pay the Submittable fee.
The winner receives a $500 cash award, publication, ten copies, a reading at the Hudson Valley Writers Center, plus travel expenses up to $500 if needed and if reading is in person. Winning poets are also offered editorial and marketing advice.
eChapbook Awards
Sponsor – Snapshot Press
Deadline Date – 31-Jul-2025
Program Information – View Details
The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards are international annual prizes for unpublished small collections of haiku, tanka, and other short poetry. Award winners have their collections published online by Snapshot Press.
A collection should consist of 8–24 short poems (of any genre).
Individual poems can be of any length from 1–25 lines (including any blank lines between stanzas). Prose poems (and haibun) should not exceed 200 words. Poems may be titled or otherwise.
Poems may be published or unpublished, but present or earlier versions must not have previously appeared in a published individual collection (i.e. a single-author book or e-book) of any length.
Manuscripts should be in English and must be entirely the work of the entrant.
The entry fee for the Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards is £15 or US $20.
Award winners will have their collections published online by Snapshot Press.
Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction
Sponsor – University of North Texas Press
Deadline Date – 30-Jun-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The University of North Texas Press awards an annual prize for short fiction. The winner of this annual award will receive $1000 and publication by UNT Press.
Entries must be a collection of any combination of flash fiction, short stories, or novellas, from 100 to 200 book pages in length (word count between 27,500 and 50,000). Material should be previously unpublished in book form. Once a winner is declared and contracted for publication, UNT Press will hold the rights to the stories in the winning collection. They may no longer be under consideration for serial publication elsewhere and must be withdrawn by the author from consideration.
Authors may submit more than one manuscript to the competition for consideration as long as no material is duplicated between submissions. Each submission will require a separate entry fee.
The winner of this annual award will receive $1000 and publication by UNT Press.
Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award
Sponsor – Comstock Review
Deadline Date – 15-Jul-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Comstock Review offers the annual Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award for poetry. The top prize is $1,000.
Poems must be the submitter’s original work, and unpublished in any medium, print or electronic. No AI-generated poems are allowed. Editors may disqualify all poems submitted by a poet if any authorship violation is found. Poem length must be 12-60 lines after the title including all stanza breaks. Maximum line length is 70 characters, counting all letters, numbers, punctuation and spaces. Tabs count as equivalent number of spaces.
First prize is $1,000, second prize is $250, and third prize is $100. Honorable Mentions receive an extra one-year subscription. All Prize Winners, Honorable Mentions, and Special Merit Poems are considered accepted work and will be published. In 2025 they will appear in Vol. 29 Issue 2, Winter 2025, scheduled for release in February or March of 2026. The Comstock Review reserves the right of first refusal for all accepted (finalist) poems.
International Poetry Competition – Open Verse Adults
Sponsor – New Zealand Poetry Society
Deadline Date – 31-May-2025
Program Information – View Details
The New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition is open for the Open category.
For the Open category, poems may be on any theme. Poems must not have been previously published in any form (including self-published, published on a website or blog, broadcast, or made public via social media). Each poem must be no more than 32 lines in length.
The Open category is for poets 18+ years. Poets can enter four separate entry categories.
New Measure Poetry Prize
Sponsor – Parlor Press
Deadline Date – 15-Jun-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
Parlor Press’s poetry series, Free Verse Editions, is pleased to announce the eleventh annual New Measure Poetry Prize, which will carry a cash award of $1,000 and publication of an original, unpublished manuscript of poems.
A prize is awarded for an original, unpublished manuscript of poems.
Manuscripts must be at least 54 pages. Multiple and simultaneous submissions are acceptable but entry fees are nonrefundable if the manuscript is withdrawn.
The prize carries a cash award of $1,000 and publication. Up to four other manuscripts may be accepted for publication by Free Verse Editions editors.
Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize
Sponsor – Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.
Deadline Date – 08-May-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Cave Canem Poetry Prize is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by black poets of African descent. All unpublished, original collections of poems written in English by black writers of African descent who have not had a full-length book of poetry published by a professional press are eligible. The winner receives $1,000.
This first-book award is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by black poets of African descent.
Eligible submissions are unpublished, original collections of poems written in English by Black writers of African descent who have not had a full-length book of poetry published by a professional press. Authors of chapbooks and self-published books with a maximum print run of 500 may apply. Simultaneous submission to other book awards should be noted: immediate notice upon winning such an award is required.
Winner receives $10,000, a publication by University of Georgia Press in Fall 2026, 15 copies of the book, and a feature reading.
Felicia Krishna Hensel Best Book Award
Sponsor – International Studies Association
Deadline Date – 31-May-2025
Funding – $250.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The IDSS has established a book award prize that recognizes a work that is an original and outstanding contribution to interdisciplinary studies, broadly defined. Interdisciplinary studies are unique in making conceptual and methodological connections across disciplines, challenging disciplinary orthodoxies, and critically applying research techniques and approaches across multiple disciplines. Given the interconnectedness of our globalized world, researchers need to use techniques and methods inspired by various disciplines to comprehensively address a wider array of transnational events, issues, and challenges.
Books may be single- or multi-authored and must be original works (not edited collections, textbooks or translations). Books must have been published within the two-year period preceding the year of the competition. Books must fall into the broadly defined category of interdisciplinary studies in approach and/or subject matter, as understood by the selection committee.
Authors must be current members of ISA.
A $250.00 (USD) cash prize is awarded to the recipient. The winner will also receive a certificate at the awards presentations at the annual ISA Annual Convention.
Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets
Sponsor – Boulevard
Deadline Date – 01-Jun-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets awards $1,000 and publication for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press.
The Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets provides a monetary award and publication for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press. The poems may be a sequence or unrelated.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but previously accepted or published work is ineligible. No one editorially or financially affiliated with Boulevard can enter the contest.
The winner receives $1,000 and the publication of the winning group of three poems. The winning poems will be first announced on the website and then published in the following issue of Boulevard.
Backwaters Prize in Poetry
Sponsor – University of Nebraska Press
Deadline Date – 01-May-2025
Funding – $2,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Backwaters Prize is an annual award, open to all poets working in the English language, given to the author of the best submitted manuscript of original poems. The winner will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize and the honorable mention will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize. Both winners will be awarded the publication of their book by the University of Nebraska Press under its imprint, The Backwaters Press.
The Backwaters Prize is an annual award, open to all poets working in the English language, given to the author of the best submitted manuscript of original poems. The manuscript must be in English and should be between 60 and 85 typewritten pages (not including credits or other frontmatter or backmatter material) in Times New Roman, 12-point font. Poems should be single spaced, with double spacing between stanzas. Do not include illustrations in the manuscript. The poetry must be original and may be either a collection or a single long poem. No collaborations or translations will be considered. Submitted manuscripts may not have been published previously in any form, whether in print or online. Individual poems may have been printed in magazines, journals, or anthologies, but 95% or more of the manuscript must not have been published together in book form. However, poems previously published together in chapbooks may be collected together into a single manuscript. The contest winners must be able to obtain permission to republish previously published works if the copyright has not been retained.
Persons associated with the University of Nebraska Press or The Backwaters Press may not submit a manuscript to the contest.
The winner will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize and the honorable mention will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize. Both winners will be awarded the publication of their book by the University of Nebraska Press under its imprint, The Backwaters Press.
