Poetry Manuscript Contest

Submission Guidelines

The guidelines for paper submissions are below. For electronic submissions, please visit our online submission manager.

We will consider only original collections of poems written in English. (You may include individual poems that have appeared elsewhere.) Students, colleagues, and close friends of Bob Hicok (the 2012 judge), and current students and employees of Georgetown College are not eligible.

One winning manuscript will be awarded a $1000 prize, publication of the book, and 20 author’s copies.

The guidelines for paper submissions are below. For electronic submissions, please visit our online submission manager.

Paper Submission Guidelines:

Manuscripts should be typewritten, single-spaced, and between 48 and 80 pages long. No more than one poem should appear on a page. A clean and legible manuscript is recommended. Do not send your only copy of the manuscript since manuscripts are not returned. We assume no responsibility for damaged or lost manuscripts. All submissions must be accompanied by a $20 entry fee. Please make your check out to “Georgetown College.”

Submit two title pages for the collection. The author’s name, address, daytime phone number, and email address should appear on the first title page only, along with an acknowledgment listing poems published elsewhere. The author’s name should appear nowhere else in the manuscript. The second title page should only include the title of the collection.

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 15, 2012. (USPS Priority Mail is preferred.)

Please address entries to:

Georgetown Review Poetry Manuscript Contest
Georgetown College
PO Box 227
Georgetown KY 40324

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification of contest results. Manuscripts may be under consideration elsewhere, but the series editor must be informed immediately if a collection is accepted for publication.

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2011 Georgetown Review Press Winner

The winner of the 2011 Georgetown Review Press poetry manuscript winner is
Laurie MacDiarmid’s Consolation Prize.  It was chosen from 236 manuscripts.

Other finalists were:
Gregory Loselle  – The Very Rich Hours
Marcia Popp  – War from the Back Seat
Mark Wisniewski – Come August

In Consolation Prize, Laurie MacDiarmid, with compassion and grace, presents a frightening extended family.  The series of poems chronicles a young speaker who copes with death, illness, disruption, relocation, and alcoholism.  The dangers of domestic life are rendered with tenderness and precision.  Consolation Prize builds in momentum, each poem well plotted, emotionally adept, energetic, and full of music.

- Denise Duhamel

Consolation Prize idles high and accelerates quickly. Laurie MacDiarmid writes tight, sharp poems fueled by mercy and grudge and survival. Everything is hard-earned, with no clear resolutions, no easy heroes or villains. In the hands of a lesser writer, these family dramas could have been distorted or exploited, but MacDiarmid gives us the clear, frank, emotional truths—never sentimental, never hysterical.  Like the best poets, she knows when to hold back and when to let go.

- Jim Daniels