Three Omnidawn Poetry Contests:        

1st/2nd Book Contest—$3,000 (May–June, 2012)

Open Book Poetry Contest—$3,000 (November–December, 2012)

Chapbook Contest—$1,000 (February–March, 2013)

The winner of each of the three Omnidawn poetry book competitions wins a cash prize as indicated above for each contest, publication of the book with a full color cover by Omnidawn, 100 free copies of the winning book, and extensive display advertising and publicity, including prominent display ads in American Poetry Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books and other publications. All three Omnidawn poetry book contests have very similar guidelines and submission procedures, as completely described on this web page. The requirements that are the same for all contests include the following: Postal and online poetry contest submissions are accepted for all contests. Manuscript submissions for all contests must be original, in English, and previously unpublished, although individual poems in a manuscript are still eligible for this contest if they have been previously published in print or web magazines, journals, anthologies, or on a personal web site. Revisions are not allowed during the contests. Translations and collaborations by more than one author are not eligible. All Omnidawn poetry competitions are blind, so you can submit manuscripts that contain identifying information, but please be aware that such information will be removed from manuscripts before they are passed on to our editors who select manuscripts to be sent to the judge. If we find a serious error in your entry we will either correct it or contact you to obtain a correction at no cost to you, so your error will not disqualify you. Nor will a few smaller errors in your manuscript, including spelling, punctuation, or typographic errors, reduce your chances of winning. (We fully understand that such errors sometimes occur for everyone, and that these can be easily corrected later.) The only differences between Omnidawn poetry competitions are the contest dates, the judge, the dollar amount of the prize, the reading fee, the manuscript page limit, an optional Omnidawn book offer, and for one contest only, the First/Second Book Poetry Contest, a limit on the number of previously published full-size books by a submitting poet. These differences are described immediately below, under the "Current Poetry Competition" and "Upcoming Poetry Competitions" headings.

Current Poetry Competition

2012 First/Second Book ($3,000 & Publication)     May 1–June 30, 2012                          Judge: Brenda Hillman

First/Second Book poetry contest open to writers who have either never published a full-length book of poetry, or who have published only one full-length book of poetry, so that the winning book would become a poet's first or second published book of poetry. Writers who have published two or more full length books of poetry are NOT eligible. (Chapbooks do not count.) The manuscript page limit is 120 pages for this poetry book contest. (Most manuscripts we receive are 40-70 pages long.) Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Brenda Hillman, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contest submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between May 1 and June 30, 2012 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time. 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 Omnidawn book (including 4 PEN USA winning books). A complete list of all Omnidawn books is available at www.omnidawn.com/catalog.htm. The winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in January 2013, and we expect to publish the winning book in the fall of 2013.

 

All the essential information for the current 1st/2nd Poetry Book Contest is contained in the above two paragraphs.

 

If you want to read helpful additional details, which are virtually identical for all Omnidawn contests, and then go to the submission procedures, you can:

         Click here for helpful additional details and the submission procedures.

OR, if you want to skip the additional details and go directly to concise submission procedures, you can either:

         Go to the POSTAL submission procedure by clicking here.

         OR

         Go to the ONLINE submission web page by clicking here, or paste the following link into your browser:     www.omnidawn.net

 

Upcoming Poetry Competitions

2012 Open Book ($3,000 & Publication)                    November 1–December 31, 2012      Judge: Cole Swensen

Open poetry book competition for all writers with no limitations on the amount of poetry a writer has published. The manuscript page limit is 120 pages for this poetry book contest. (Most manuscripts we receive are 40-80 pages long.) Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Cole Swenson, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contests submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between November 1 and December 31, 2012 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. 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 Omnidawn book (including 4 PEN USA winning books). A complete list of all current Omnidawn books is available at www.omnidawn.com/catalog.htm. The winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in May 2013, and we expect to publish the winning book in the spring of 2014. Click here for helpful additional details and submission procedures that are virtually identical for all Omnidawn Contests.

2013 Chapbook Contest ($1,000 & Publication)     February 1–March 31, 2013            Judge: Gillian Conoley

Open to all writers with no limitations on the amount of poetry a writer has published. Submissions should be 20–40 pages of poetry, not including front and back matter (so that this will fit in a 5.5 x 7 inch published chapbook of approximately 50 pages or less). Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Gillian Conoley, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contest submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between February 1 and March 31, 2013 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Reading fee is $18 for the poetry chapbook contest. For $2 extra to cover shipping cost, entrants who provide a U.S. mailing address may choose to receive this contest's winning chapbook or any Omnidawn chapbook. A complete list of all Omnidawn chapbooks is available at www.omnidawn.com/chapbook-catalog.htm. The poetry chapbook contests winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in August 2013, and we expect to publish the winning chapbook in December of 2013. Click here for helpful additional details and submission procedures that are virtually identical for all Omnidawn Contests.