Poetry Contest

For the 2023 contest, the Autumn House staff as well as select outsider readers serve as the preliminary readers, and the final judge is Toi Derricotte. The winner receives publication of a full-length manuscript and $2,500. The submission period opens January 1, 2023, and closes May 31, 2023 (Eastern Time). We will announce the finalists and the winner of the contest by October 15, 2023. 

• The winner will receive book publication, a $1,000 honorarium, and a $1,500 travel/publicity grant to promote their book
• All finalists will be considered for publication
• Poetry submissions should be approximately 50-80 pages
• Each new poem should start on a new page
• Illustrations are strongly discouraged
• The reading fee is $30; we’ve reached our cap for fee waivers for the 2023 Poetry Prize. We appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience. 
• The book should be previously unpublished
• Do not include your name anywhere on the actual manuscript; if your name appears within the body of the text, please omit it or black it out (first name is fine, but last name must be omitted)
• You may include a brief bio in the “cover letter” section of Submittable
• Do not include a bio or an acknowledgments page in the manuscript
• Feel free to include a table of contents (This does not count a part of your final page count)
• Simultaneous submissions permitted
• Friends, family members, and former students of judges or Autumn House editors may not submit to the contest. Students do not include interactions at short-term residencies or fellowships.
• Former employees of Autumn House, including interns, may not submit to the contest.

If you have any questions, please check our FAQ page.

Winners of the Autumn House Poetry Prize

Year	Author	Title	Judge
2022	Jennifer Conlon	Taking to Water	Carl Phillips
2021	Sara R. Burnett	Seed Celestial	Eileen Myles
2020	Shayla Lawz	speculation, n.	Ilya Kaminsky
2019	makalani bandele	under the aegis of a winged mind	Cornelius Eady
2018	Charles Kell	Cage of Lit Glass	Kimiko Hahn
2017	Melissa Cundieff	Darling Nova	Alberto Ríos
2016	Jane Satterfield	Apocalypse Mix	David St. John
2015	Brian Swann	St. Francis and the Flies	Dorianne Laux
2014	Ellery Akers	Practicing the Truth	Alicia Ostriker
2013	Danusha Lameris	The Moons of August	Naomi Shihab Nye
2012	Chelsea Rathburn	A Raft of Grief	Stephen Dunn
2011	Brian Brodeur	Natural Causes	Denise Duhamel
2010	Corrinne Clegg Hales	To Make It Right	Claudia Emerson
2009	Jacqueline Berger	The Gift that Arrives Broken	Alicia Ostriker
2008	Mary Crockett Hill	A Theory of Everything	Naomi Shihab Nye
2007	Miriam Levine	The Dark Opens	Mark Doty
2006	Nancy Pagh	No Sweeter Fat	Tim Seibles
2005	Ada Limon	lucky wreck	Jean Valentine
2004	Ruth L. Schwartz	Dear Good Naked Morning	Alicia Ostriker
2003	Deborah Slicer	The White Calf Kicks	Naomi Shihab Nye

 

We strive to run our contests ethically and subscribe to CLMP’s guidelines. We encourage you to reach out if you are uncertain about a potential conflict of interest.