Here’s a new year’s resolution for you: Give your book a fighting chance to get published! For poets in the Upper Midwest, there’s no better way to get the ball rolling than by submitting to Milkweed Editions’ Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, which offers $10,000 and publication of a collection by a poet currently residing in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.
Using only the online submission system, submit one unpublished poetry manuscript of at least forty-eight pages by January 15. There is no entry fee, and poets may be at any stage in their career. Maggie Smith will judge. View the website for complete guidelines.
Established in 2011, the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry aims to support outstanding poets from the Upper Midwest by bringing their work to the attention of a national audience. In addition to the financial award and publication, the winning poet will receive a standard royalty contract, national distribution, and a robust marketing and publicity campaign by Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit literary press based in Minneapolis. The 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry went to K. Iver for Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco, selected by Tyehimba Jess and featured in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine in Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin.