Colorado Prize for Poetry

The Colorado Prize for Poetry is an international poetry book manuscript contest established in 1995. Each year’s prizewinner receives a $2,000 honorarium and publication of his or her book by the Center for Literary Publishing.

Manuscripts will be accepted between October 1, 2016, and the postmark deadline of January 14, 2017. The winner will be announced by May 2017.

The winning book-length collection of poems will be published by the Center for Literary Publishing and distributed by the University Press of Colorado in the fall of 2017. The author receives a $2,000 honorarium.

There is a $28 online entry fee, which includes a one-year subscription to Colorado Review (the extra $3 goes to the good people at Submittable).

Poets with US addresses may opt for either a print or digital subscription. Poets living outside the US will receive digital subscriptions (as long as a valid e-mail address is provided). Please select the appropriate submission portal.



The final judge is Susan Howe.

Friends and students (current & former) of the final judge are not eligible to compete,nor are Colorado State University employees, students, and alumni.

Manuscripts must be at least 48 pages but no more than 100 pages.

Manuscripts may consist of poems that have been published, but the manuscript as a whole must be unpublished (this includes self-publishing).

In your cover letter, please tell us the manuscript title, your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number. You may supply a bio note here, if you wish, but it is not required. Your name should NOT appear anywhere else in the manuscript.

Please do not include acknowledgments/publication credits of individual poems.

Manuscripts may be double- or single-spaced.


You may enter more than one manuscript. Each manuscript requires the $28 entry fee. If you’d like the additional subscriptions sent to someone other than yourself , include that information in your cover letter. Otherwise, your subscription will be extended by one year for each additional entry.

The theme and style are both open.

Authors do NOT need to be residents of Colorado or the United States. (Note, however, that print subscriptions can be sent only to US addresses.)

Poets who submit online will receive contest results via e-mail by May 2017.

On or after October 1, 2016, please submit here: Submit to Colorado Prize for Poetry

Questions? Please call us at (970) 491-5449 or send an e-mail to creview@colostate.edu