The Akron Poetry Prize - Deadline June 15

The Akron Series in Poetry was founded to bring to the public writers who speak in original and compelling voices. Each year, The University of Akron Press offers the Akron Poetry Prize, a competition open to all poets writing in English. The winning poet receives $1,500 and publication of his or her book. The final selection will be made by a nationally prominent poet. The final judge for 2014 is Maxine Chernoff. Other manuscripts may also be considered for publication in the series.
Guidelines for Submission

1. Manuscripts must be typed and consecutively numbered, for a total length of at least 48 pages, and no longer than 90 pages. Clear photocopies are acceptable. Please, do not send manuscripts bound or enclosed in covers. Individual poems may have appeared in chapbooks or literary magazines, but we are unable to consider collections that have been previously published as a full-length volume. Translations are not eligible.

2. Manuscripts must include a cover page (with author's name, address, phone number, and manuscript title), a title page (with no biographical information), and an acknowledgements page listing poems previously published in periodicals (if applicable). Please do not submit manuscripts that have the author's name on each page. Manuscripts go to the final judge blind.

3. Manuscripts must be postmarked between April 15 and June 15 of each year. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but The University of Akron Press must be notified immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

4. An entry fee of $25 is required for each manuscript submission. Make check or money order payable to The University of Akron Press. The canceled check will serve as notification of receipt.

5. Contest results will be posted on our websitewww.uakron.edu/uapress/poetryprizewinner by September 30. No manuscripts can be returned.

6. Books accepted for the Akron Series in Poetry must exhibit three essential qualities: mastery of language, maturity of feeling, and complexity of thought. The University of Akron Press is committed to publishing poetry that, as Robert Frost said, "begins in delight and ends in wisdom." Intimate friends, relatives, current and former students of the final judge (students in an academic, degree-conferring program or its equivalent) and current faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the University of Akron or the Northeast Ohio MFA Program (NEOMFA) are not eligible to enter the Akron Poetry Prize competition.
Send manuscripts to:

The Akron Poetry Prize
The University of Akron Press
120 E. Mill Street, Suite 415
Akron, OH 44308
2014 Final Judge

Maxine Chernoff is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recentlyTo Be Read in the Dark (Omnidawn, 2011), Without (Shearsman, 2012) andHere (Counterpath, 2014). Chair of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, she edits the long-running literary journal New American Writing.She has taught for the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the Prague Summer Workshops, and was a Visiting International Scholar at Exeter University (England) in January 2013. Author of six works of fiction, two of which were finalists for the Bay Area Book Award and one a New York Times Notable Book of 1993, she is the recipient of a 2013 NEA Fellowship in Poetry and the 2009 PEN USA Translation Award for her collaborative translation of The Selected Works of Friedrich Hoelderlin.