Guidelines

Submission of Manuscript

• Manuscripts should be between 60 and 100 pages of original poetry in English with each poem beginning on a separate page.
• The manuscript may not be previously published.
• Include two title pages with each manuscript: one with the manuscript title and the author's contact information (name, address, phone, email), and the other with only the manuscript title.
• Include a table of contents and a list of acknowledgments for previously published individual poems, if applicable.
• Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you want to be notified when your manuscript is received. Manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send your only copy.

Submission Fee

Include $25 for the reading and processing fee for each manuscript submitted. Make checks payable to Truman State University Press. If you prefer to pay by Visa, MasterCard, or Discover, include your credit card number, expiration date, cardholder name, and signature.

 

Submission Deadline

Entries must be postmarked by October 31 to be considered for the next year's award. (For the 2011 Award, entries will be accepted if they are postmarked by November 1).

Submission Address

Manuscripts should be unbound, placed in a file folder, and sent to:

T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
Truman State University Press
100 East Normal Avenue
Kirksville, MO 63501-4221

 

Multiple Submissions

Manuscripts may be under consideration elsewhere, but please inform TSUP if a collection is accepted for publication. More than one manuscript may be submitted to the T. S. Eliot Prize, and each require a separate fee.

Eligibility

The manuscript may include individual poems previously published in journals or anthologies, but may not include a significant number of poems from a published chapbook or a self-published book. Current Truman State University faculty, staff, and students are not eligible to compete.

 

Competition Results

Results will be posted online in February and announced in poetry magazines.

Judges

The judge will be announced after the finalists have been selected in January.

Previous judges are:

• 2010 –Claudia Keelan
• 2009 – Virgil Suárez
• 2008 – Grace Schulman
• 2007 – Alberto Rios
• 2006 – Naomi Shihab Nye
• 2005 – Ishmael Reed
• 2004 – Diane Wakoski
• 2003 – C. D. Wright
• 2002 – David Wagoner
• 2001 – Lynne McMahon
• 2000 – Dana Gioia
• 1999 – Mary Oliver
• 1998 – X. J. Kennedy
• 1997 – Samuel Maio