The Gatewood Prize

The Gatewood Prize is Switchback Books' annual competition for a first or second full-length (48-80 pp.) collection of poems by a woman writing in the English language. It is named after Emma Gatewood, the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

Click here to download our contest flyer [PDF].

 

2011 Judge: Harryette Mullen

 

Reading Period: April 1-June 1, 2011

Harryette Mullen's most recent books are Recyclopedia (Graywolf Press, 2006) and Sleeping with the Dictionary (University of California Press, 2002), a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Mullen was the 2009 recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Fellowship Award. She teaches African American literature and creative writing in the English Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

General Terms:

Poet must be a woman; our definition of "woman" is broad and includes transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and female-identified individuals.

Multiple submissions are acceptable, but each manuscript must be entered under separate cover and fee.

You must let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted by another publisher while under our consideration.

No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered; the winning manuscript may be revised before publication.

Translations ineligible.

Manuscripts by close friends and former students of the judge are ineligible. If the judge would recognize your manuscript for any reason, please wait until next year to enter the contest.

Co-written collections are eligible provided both poets meet all eligibility requirements.

Submissions will be read by Switchback editors and staff members. We will select ten manuscripts to send on to the judge, who will choose the final winner.

Manuscripts remain anonymous until a winner is selected. Please remove any identifying references from your manuscript (including those in the body of the manuscript).

Entries that do not meet these terms may be disqualified. Please email editors at switchbackbooks dot com with any questions.

 

Manuscript Requirements:

Manuscripts should be between 48 and 80 pages, paginated.

Please include a cover page with ONLY the title of the manuscript.

Table of contents recommended.

No acknowledgments page.

 

Notification:

You will be notified of the winner and finalists of the contest via email.

 

Entry Fee:

Option 1: $18 for reading fee only

Option 2: $25 for reading fee and a book of your choice from our catalog (a 50% discount). Please specify which book on the Submishmash form; if you don't specify, we'll send you a random book.

All payments will be accepted via Submishmash. We do not accept cash, checks, or money orders.

 

Submission Format:

Please visit our page at Submishmash to submit your manuscript:

http://switchbackbooks.submishmash.com/submit

 

Deadline:

Manuscripts will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. on June 1, 2011.

We recommend that you familiarize yourself with our aesthetics before submitting a manuscript to our contest. You can do this by reading sample poems on our website, or checking out the work of previous contest winners and finalists:

 

 

 

2010 Gatewood Prize Results

 

2008 Gatewood Prize Results

 

2007 Gatewood Prize Results

 

2006 Gatewood Prize Results

Donations always appreciated!