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NPS Open Competition

Five winning poets will each receive a $10,000 cash prize in addition to having a full-length manuscript published by a participating publisher. Open to U.S. residents and American citizens living abroad. 

No open submissions. Will begin accepting applications in January 2025

Learn more about the winners of the 2024 contest here.

Enter the Open Competition

Accepting submissions beginning January 7, 2025.

Apply now via Submittable

The Paz Prize for Poetry

Miami Book Fair @Miami Dade College will award one prize annually for the publication of a previously unpublished book of poetry originally written in Spanish by an American resident. 

National Poetry Series Open Competition Guidelines

The National Poetry Series seeks book-length manuscripts of poetry written by American residents or American citizens living abroad.

Manuscripts are submitted online only via Submittable with an entrance fee of $35.00 (per manuscript). The entry period for the 2025 Open Competition begins on January 7, 2025, 12:00 AM EST and runs through (and including) March 21, 2025, 11:59 PM EST.

IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED, MANUSCRIPTS MUST ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES:

  1. All manuscripts must be previously unpublished in their complete form, although some or all of the individual poems may have appeared in periodicals.
  2. Translations, chapbooks, small groups of poems, and self-published books are not eligible.
  3. Manuscript length is not limited. However, a length of 48-64 pages is suggested.
  4. Manuscripts must be paginated and contain a Table of Contents.
  5. Because all submissions are anonymously submitted, and must be preserved as such until the end of the contest, please observe the following:   The cover page of the manuscript should list the title of the manuscript only. No personal information of any kind, including name, address, phone number or email address should appear anywhere within the manuscript. All contact information will be entered separately in the entrant’s Submittable account. Any manuscript containing personal information will not be considered for review, and refunds of the application fee will not be returned.
  6. Please do not include:   Photographs, illustrations, or artwork. All submissions must be in black and white.
  7. Please do not include:  Acknowledgments, explanatory statements, resumes, or autobiographical statements.
  8. A list of previous publications or appearances in periodicals should not be included.
  9. When saving manuscripts, entrants should not “name” the manuscript with their last name in their personal computer storage, as that will appear when the reader opens the manuscript. For example: John Smith should not save his manuscript as “Smith_Poetry _Manuscript.doc.”
  10. No additions, deletions, or substitutions are allowed once a manuscript has been submitted. Entrants should inform NPS immediately if their manuscript is selected for publication elsewhere.

Finalists will be notified by approximately June 15 of the calendar year.  The finalists’ manuscripts will then be submitted to five separate judges for consideration.

The five winning authors are notified in early September of the calendar year. All finalists will be notified of their status at that time.

Who is eligible to submit?

Eligible poets include:

  • U.S. Citizens
  • Residents of the United States for a ten-year period prior to January 1 of the prize year, or
  • Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Legal Permanent Status (LPS), or any subsequent categories designated by the U.S. authorities as conferring similar enhanced status upon non-citizens living in the United States.

A note to previous winners: Poets who are previous winners of The National Poetry Series competition must wait three cycles before being eligible to submit again. (For example, if a poet was a winner of the 2015 competition, he or she must not reapply until the 2019 competition).

May I submit a manuscript manually, i.e., by mail?

We no longer accept manual submissions. All manuscripts are submitted online via Submittable.

Why can’t a cover page with my name and address, etc. be included with my manuscript?

The National Poetry Series Open Competition is completely anonymous, and must remain so for the duration of the contest. In fact, entrants do submit a cover page of sorts when they open their Submittable account, and list their name, address, email and phone number. This information is only viewable by the Coordinator at the National Poetry Series, but is invisible to readers and judges. If personal information appears elsewhere, it compromises the anonymity of the process and the entrant will either 1) be disqualified or 2) asked to resubmit an entirely new manuscript, including a second entrance fee.

How long does it take for the winners to be announced?

Because The National Poetry Series receives over 1,000 manuscripts, they are first assigned to preliminary readers, who narrow the selection down to approximately 45 finalists each year. These finalists are usually announced by May 31 of the calendar year.

The finalists’ manuscripts are then sent to five distinguished judges, all of whom choose one winning submission. The winners are usually decided no later than August 31 of the calendar year.

 

All finalists are notified of their status by the beginning of September of the calendar year.

Who publishes the winning books?

The participating presses are not always the same from year to year. However, currently the five presses are Penguin Books, Beacon Press, University of Georgia Press, Milkweed Editions and Ecco.

Do you ever waive the entrance fee?

Because we use Submittable to process our manuscripts, it is not possible to evaluate entrants on a case by case basis and therefore we cannot make exceptions to the entrance fee.

Is the prize subject to taxes?

By law, The National Poetry Series must report cash prizes awarded to individuals to the Internal Revenue Service. If individuals have a Social Security Number (SSN) or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), the individual will receive a 1099. If the individual does not have an SSN or ITIN, the individual will receive a 1042 and could be subject to a withholding of a percentage of the cash prize.

What is the best way to contact you if I have questions?

The best way to reach us is by email. If your question is related to the contest, you can reach the Coordinator at bethdial@nationalpoetryseries.org. If you would like to make a donation and have a question pertaining to it, you can reach our accountant at maryannbsalem@nationalpoetryseries.org.

How can I purchase copies of winnings books by The National Poetry Series authors?

Current and previous winners of The National Poetry Series can be found here.

I’d like to support The National Poetry Series. How do I make a donation?

Donations can be made online or by mail to The National Poetry Series, 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540. All donations are tax deductible.

The Paz Prize for Poetry Competition Guidelines

Miami Book Fair will award one $2,000 prize every other year (in even years) for the publication of a previously unpublished book of poetry originally written in Spanish by an American resident.  The prize will recognize book-length manuscripts of poetry written in Spanish. Translations, works of literary criticism and scholarly texts do not qualify. The next Paz Prize competition will open in May, 2024.

The winner will be selected by an esteemed Spanish-speaking poet.  The chosen book will be translated into English by an experienced translator, and will be published in a bilingual edition.

Eligible poets include:

  • U.S. Citizens
  • Residents of the United States for a ten-year period prior to January 1 of the prize year, or
  • Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Legal Permanent Status (LPS), or any subsequent categories designated by the U.S. authorities as conferring similar enhanced status upon non-citizens living in the United States.

Manuscripts are submitted online only via Submittable. The entry period for the 2024 Paz Prize begins on May 1, 2024 and runs through (and including) June 15, 2024.

  1. All manuscripts must be previously unpublished in their complete form, although some or all of the individual poems may have appeared in periodicals.
  2. Translations, chapbooks, small groups of poems, and self-published books are not eligible.
  3. Manuscript length is not limited. However, a length of 48-64 pages is suggested.
  4. Manuscripts must be paginated and contain a Table of Contents.
  5. Because all submissions are anonymously submitted, and must be preserved as such until the end of the contest, please observe the following:   The cover page of the manuscript should list the title of the manuscript only. No personal information of any kind, including name, address, phone number or email address should appear anywhere within the manuscript. All contact information will be entered separately in the entrant’s Submittable account. Any manuscript containing personal information will not be considered for review.
  6. Please also do not include:  Acknowledgments, explanatory statements, resumes, autobiographical statements, photographs, illustrations, or artwork.
  7. A list of previous publications or appearances in periodicals should not be included.
  8. When saving manuscripts, entrants should not “name” the manuscript with their last name in their personal computer storage, as that will appear when the reader opens the manuscript. For example: John Smith should not save his manuscript as “Smith_Poetry _Manuscript.doc.”
  9. No additions, deletions, or substitutions are allowed once a manuscript has been submitted. Entrants should inform NPS immediately if their manuscript is selected for publication elsewhere.

Finalists for the award will be notified in mid-September, and the winner will be announced in November.  Information relating to the competition will be available at nationalpoetryseries.org and miambookfair.com.

For more information, please contact Beth Dial, Coordinator, The National Poetry Series, 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540, or bethdial@nationalpoetryseries.org

Miami Book Fair otorgará cada dos años (en años pares) un premio para la publicación de un poemario inédito escrito originalmente en español por un (a) autor(a) residente en los Estados Unidos. Sólo se aceptarán manuscritos de poesía con extensión de libro redactados en español. Las traducciones, obras de crítica literaria y textos académicos no serán elegibles. El próximo período de recepción de manuscritos comenzará en mayo de 2024.

El poemario ganador será seleccionado por un (a) prestigioso (a) poeta de habla hispana. El libro escogido será traducido al inglés por un traductor experto, y será publicado en una edición bilingüe.

El Premio Paz será administrado por The National Poetry Series.

Los participantes deberán enviar el material solo vía Submittable, entre el 1 de mayo y el 15 de junio 2024 (ambos incluidos), teniendo en cuenta lo siguiente:

  1. Todos los manuscritos deben ser inéditos por completo, aunque algunos o todos los poemas individuales pueden haber aparecido en publicaciones periódicas.
  2. No son elegibles las traducciones, los chapbooks, los pequeños grupos de poemas y los libros autoeditados.
  3. La extensión del manuscrito no está limitada. Sin embargo, se sugiere una extensión de 48 a 64 páginas.
  4. Los manuscritos deben estar paginadosy contener un índice.
  5. Debido a que todas las presentaciones se envían de forma anónima y deben conservarse como tales hasta el final del concurso, tenga en cuenta lo siguiente: la portada del manuscrito debe incluir únicamente el título del manuscrito. Ninguna información personal de ningún tipo, incluido el nombre, la dirección, el número de teléfono o la dirección de correo electrónico, debe aparecer en ninguna parte del manuscrito. Toda la información de contacto se ingresará por separado en la cuenta Submittable del participante. Cualquier manuscrito que contenga información personal no será considerado para revisión.
  6. Tampoco incluya: agradecimientos, declaraciones explicativas, currículums, declaraciones autobiográficas, fotografías, ilustraciones o obras de arte.
  7. No se debe incluir una lista de publicaciones o apariciones anteriores en revistas.
  8. Al guardar manuscritos, los participantes no deben “nombrar” el manuscrito con su apellidoen el almacenamiento de su computadora personal, ya que aparecerá cuando el lector abra el manuscrito. Por ejemplo: John Smith no debe guardar su manuscrito como “Smith_Poetry_Manuscript.doc”.
  9. No se permiten adiciones, eliminaciones o sustituciones una vez enviado el manuscrito. Los participantes deben informar a NPS inmediatamente si su manuscrito es seleccionado para publicación en otro lugar.

Los finalistas del premio serán notificados a finales de julio, y el nombre del (la) ganador (a) se dará a conocer en septiembre. Para obtener información acerca del concurso, visite los sitios Web www.nationalpoetryseries.com y www.miamibookfair.com

El (la) poeta que gane el premio tendrá la oportunidad de hacerle cambios finales al manuscrito antes de su publicación.

Para más información, póngase en contacto con: Beth Dial, The National Poetry Series, 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540. Tel: 609.430.0999 bethdial@nationalpoetryseries.org

Apply for the Paz Prize

Applications will be accepted starting May 2024.

Apply now via Submittable