Drunken Boat Poetry Book Contest. - Deadline June 25, 2014

Poetry Book Contest$25.00 USD, $28.00 USD

Drunken Boat Book Contest: Poetry (Hybrid & Translation Welcome)

Judge: Forrest Gander

Deadline: June 25, 2014

Details

Drunken Boat seeks entries for our inaugural book contest in poetry, open to any work of poetry in English (hybrid, multi-authored, and translations into English are welcome). Winner receives publication, $500, 20 author copies, a debut reading at AWP and ads in print and online sources. Though we welcome multi-author and translation projects, we can only afford to pay one honorarium (which may be split as authors / translators prefer). Drunken Boat books are distributed by SPD. Excerpts from all finalists judged in house by the Drunken Boat staff will be featured in a special folio in an issue of Drunken Boat, international online journal of the arts.

Eligibility

Open book competition for all writers with no limitations on the amount of work a writer has published. Manuscripts must be between 30 and 120 pages. Manuscripts are judged anonymously. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished as a whole (including self-publishing), but individual works may have been published.

Colleagues, current and recent students, and close friends of the judge, Forrest Gander, are not eligible. Current Drunken Boat staff and interns are not eligible. Entries must be received by June 25, 2014. Reading fee is $25.

For $3 extra to cover shipping cost, entrants who provide a U.S. mailing address may choose to receive this contest's winning book or any Drunken Boat book. The winner will be announced to our email list and on our website in September, 2014, and we expect to publish the winning book in April of 2015.

How to Submit

Submit a previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscript with a table of contents, between 30 and 120 pages. No manuscript will be rejected simply because it's shorter or longer.

Submit as a single document a cover page with the title of the manuscript only, a table of contents, acknowledgements of previous publications if applicable, and the complete finished paginated manuscript. Do not include any identifying information in the submission, including acknowledgements. (If your name is an integral part of your work, please contact us for guidelines on replacing it with a pseudonym for the purposes of judging the contest). Submittable provides fields to fill in your contact information: name, address, telephone number, and email address.

Individual poems in a contest manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks, but the work as a whole must be unpublished. If applicable, include with your manuscript an acknowledgments page for prior publications.

Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted, as long as you notify us promptly if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Multiple submissions are accepted, so long as each submission is accompanied by a separate reading fee.

Upload complete submission, and pay reading fee here.

(We are an independent, nonprofit literary press. Reading fees help with, but do not entirely cover, the cost of reviewing manuscripts, and publishing and publicizing the winner. If for reasons of financial hardship you cannot afford to pay the reading fee, please email us at editor @ drunkenboat . com and we will try to help.)

Ethics

Drunken Boat endorses and abides by the Code of Ethics developed by the Council of Literary Magazines and Press (CLMP):

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to:

1. Conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;

2. To provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and

3. To make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.


Drunken Boat is fully committed to fairness, and we believe that contest procedures should be transparent. If you have questions about our policies or practices, please do not hesitate to inquire by email.

How We Judge Contests:

To ensure that all manuscripts receive the same attention, and the fairest and most careful consideration, all manuscripts are read anonymously and judged anonymously.

All manuscripts will be double checked by Drunken Boat staff members to ensure that there is no identifying information, including acknowledgements, included in the manuscript. (If your name is an integral part of your work, please contact us for guidelines on replacing it with a pseudonym for the purposes of judging the contest). The staff members responsible for this are not involved in the selection of manuscripts.

The manuscript is then sent to two in-house editors, anonymously, who vote on the manuscript. Manuscripts that receive at least one positive vote are read by a third editor, and the manuscripts with two positive votes are considered semi-finalists.

The manuscripts are ranked by the editors. The top 10 manuscripts become finalists. Those manuscripts are sent anonymously to the judge for a final selection. If the judge wishes to see additional manuscripts, s/he may request them; however the judge is not permitted to request specific manuscripts.

Colleagues, current and recent students, and close friends of the judge are not eligible. Present Drunken Boat staff or interns are not eligible. The judge may not select a manuscript that presents a real or perceived conflict of interest.

All readers are recognized poets trusted and respected by Drunken Boat.