Genre: Poetry

Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize

Waywiser Books
Entry Fee: 
$29
Deadline: 
December 1, 2025

A prize of $3,000 and publication by Waywiser Books is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has published no more than one previous collection. The winner will also give a reading with the contest judge at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. A. E. Stallings will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 48 to 88 pages with a $29 entry fee by December 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

James Dickey Prize for Poetry

Five Points
Entry Fee: 
$25
Deadline: 
December 1, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Five Points is given annually for a group of poems. The editors will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems of no more than 50 lines each with a $25 entry fee, which includes a subscription to Five Points, by December 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Hollis Summers Poetry Prize

Ohio University Press
Entry Fee: 
$30
Deadline: 
December 31, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and publication by Ohio University Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Michael Prior will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 60 to 95 pages with a $30 entry fee by December 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

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book awards

Poetry Prize

White Pine Press
Entry Fee: 
$20
Deadline: 
November 30, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and publication by White Pine Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Submit a manuscript of 60 to 80 pages with a $20 entry fee by November 30. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poetic Fruit

The Time Is Now
9.30.25

“Forget about apples and oranges—nothing rhymes with orange anyway. Never mind those plums that William Carlos Williams sneaked from the icebox. The most poetic fruit of all is the blackberry,” writes A. O. Scott, critic at large for the New York Times Book Review, citing blackberry-inclusive works by poets such as Margaret Atwood, Emily Dickinson, Robert Hass, Seamus Heaney, Galway Kinnell, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Sylvia Plath. Compose a poem inspired by what you consider the most poetic fruit, describing the textures and tastes of your selection, and its associations in the world and in other works of art. Spend some time thinking about the name of the fruit itself, its sounds and component parts and etymological roots. Does conjuring words and phrases that recall the qualities of the fruit take your poem in a surprising or unexpected direction?

Kimberly Alidio, Courtney Bush, Natalie Shapero, and Emily Skillings

Caption: 

In this Poets House event, four poets read from their new books: Kimberly Alidio, author of Traceable Relation (Fonograf Editions, 2025); Courtney Bush, author of A Movie (Lavender Ink, 2025); Natalie Shapero, author of Stay Dead (Copper Canyon Press, 2025); and Emily Skillings, author of Tantrums in Air (The Song Cave, 2025).

Genre: 
Poetry
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Kimberly Alidio
Courtney Bush
Natalie Shapero
Emily Skillings
Poets House
reading
2025

World Poetry Salon: Colm Tóibín With Martin Hayes and Leonard Schwartz

Caption: 

In this World Poetry Salon event hosted by the New York Public Library and Limelight Poetry, Colm Tóibín reads from his collection Vinegar Hill (Beacon Press, 2022) while accompanied by musician Martin Hayes and joins Leonard Schwartz in a conversation about Ireland’s history and sense of place.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
Colm Toibin
World Poetry Salon
New York Public Library
Limelight Poetry
Vinegar Hill
Martin Hayes
Leonard Schwartz
music

How It Ends

The Time Is Now
9.23.25

“This is how the text exchange ends. / Not with an explicit farewell but with a two-day pause followed by a thumbs-up-emoji reaction,” writes Reuven Perlman in “How Other Things End” recently published in the New Yorker with an epigraph of T. S. Eliot’s famed last lines from “The Hollow Men.” “This is how the career ends. / Not with a retirement party and a gold watch but with a second career in the gig economy.” Taking inspiration from Perlman’s comedic perspective of dark times, write a humorous poem that consists of your own inventions of anticlimactic contemporary situations in which the outcome is a letdown, with more of a fizzle than a gratifying conclusion. What modern references would you include to put your own stamp on this concluding episode?

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