Genre: Poetry

National Translation Awards

American Literary Translators Association

Entry Fee:

$50

Deadline:

March 16, 2026

Two prizes of $4,000 each are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of prose translated from any language into English and published in the previous year. Publishers may submit either a poetry collection in translation or a short story collection, essay collection, novel, memoir, or hybrid prose work in translation that was published in 2025 by March 16. The entry fee is $30 for presses that publish 10 or fewer titles each year and $50 for presses that publish more than 10 titles each year. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Book Award

Noemi Press

Entry Fee:

$30

Deadline:

May 1, 2026

A prize of $2,000 and publication by Noemi Press is given annually for a poetry collection. The editors will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of any length with a $30 entry fee by May 1. Financial assistance is available upon request to those in need. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Tomaž Šalamun Prize

Verse

Entry Fee:

$17

Deadline:

March 15, 2026

A prize of $1,000 and publication by Factory Hollow Press is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner also receives an invitation to give a reading at the Tomaž Šalamun Centre for Poetry, translation of their published chapbook into Slovenian from the English, and a monthlong residency in a private apartment at the Tomaž Šalamun Centre for Poetry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, during the summer of 2027. Prose poetry, hybrid works, and translations of works of poetry by living writers from any language into English (with the relevant permission) are also eligible. Heather Christle will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 20 to 28 pages with a $17 entry fee ($13 for students) by March 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poet to Poet: X. J. Kennedy

Poet to Poet with Robert Dunn, (X.J. Kennedy - part 1 / featured guest)

Caption:

In this 1997 interview for the Poet to Poet series, X. J. Kennedy reads his poems, including “Nude Descending a Staircase” and “Nothing in Heaven Functions as It Ought,” and talks about his start as a writer with host Robert Dunn. Kennedy, who was awarded the 2015 Jackson Poetry Prize, died at the age of ninety-six on February 1, 2026.

Genre:

Poetry

Tags:

X. J. Kennedy

Nude Descending a Staircase

Time to Rhyme

The Time Is Now

2.3.26

X. J. Kennedy, winner of the 2015 Jackson Poetry Prize who died at the age of ninety-six on February 1, was known for verses which often incorporated rhyming couplets and light humor. The title poem from his debut 1961 collection, Nude Descending a Staircase, is based on Marcel Duchamp’s painting of the same name and is made up of three short stanzas, beginning with: “Toe upon toe, a snowing flesh, / a gold of lemon, root and rind, / she sifts in sunlight down the stairs / with nothing on. Nor on her mind.” Taking inspiration from this style, select a few works by a favorite artist—whether paintings, sculptures, films, or music—and compose a series of short poems that make use of end rhymes, and perhaps traditional forms of an ode, ballad, elegy, or sonnet. How might deploying a surprising twist of humor inject the poems with a sense of playful energy?

Rachel Eliza Griffiths: The Flower Bearers

#PouredOver: Rachel Eliza Griffiths on The Flower Bearers

Caption:

In this video, Rachel Eliza Griffiths talks about grief, poetry, vulnerability, and writing her first memoir, The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026), for an episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Miwa Messer. For more on Griffiths, read “Marvelous and Dangerous: A Q&A With Rachel Eliza Griffiths” by Renée H. Shea.

Genre:

Poetry

Creative Nonfiction

Tags:

Rachel Eliza Griffiths

January/February 2026

New Ways of Seeing: Debut Poets Virtual Reading

Caption:

Watch Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González host this two-part event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2026 issue. The virtual event includes readings from the poets, as well as conversations about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

Genre:

Poetry

Tags:

Debut Poets 2026

January/February 2026

Object of My Affection

The Time Is Now

1.27.26

In “Object Loss,” which appears in her Pulitzer Prize–winning poetry collection, Stag’s Leap (Knopf, 2012), Sharon Olds touches upon the emotions brought up from objects that were formerly tied to a romantic partner—a clock, a chair, a table. These physical items exemplify the metaphysicality of human connection. “As I add to the stash which will go to him,” writes Olds, “I feel as if I’m falling away / from family—as of each ponderous / object had been keeping me afloat. No, they were / the scenery of the play now closing, / lengthy run it had.” Jot down a list of objects that you’ve held on to from people you’ve loved in the past. Compose a poem that incorporates several of those items, taking care to describe their physical attributes. What sentiments did they evoke while in the act of parting, and after?

Andrés Cerpa: The Palace

Andrés Cerpa: The Palace w/ Iain Haley Pollock

Caption:

In this Books Are Magic event, Andrés Cerpa reads from his third collection, The Palace (Alice James Books, 2025), and talks about the importance of myth in poetry in a conversation with Iain Haley Pollock. Cerpa’s collection is featured in Page One in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

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January/February 2026