This contest is now closed. Many thanks to all of you who sent work!
Here is an archived version of our Submittable guidelines:
Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry Contest Guidelines
Deadline: August 15, 2013
Judge: Ilya Kaminsky
First prize: $1,000
Contest Guidelines
Please send us up to five stunning, unpublished poems of any style or sensibility.
Multiple TQ editors will consider each entry and select 20 finalists. Don’t worry about whether your name is or isn’t on the manuscript: we will strip identifying information from finalist poems before we forward them to the contest judge, Ilya Kaminsky. From the 20 finalists, he will select a winning poem and three Runners-Up. At no time will our contest judges have any identifying information about the authors.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome as long as you notify us immediately if the poem is placed elsewhere. Submissions may not be changed after entry.
- The author of the winning poem will receive $1,000 and publication in the inaugural issue of Tupelo Quarterly.
- The three Runners-Up will have their selected poems published in the inaugural issue of Tupelo Quarterly.
- All 20 finalists’ names and the titles of their nominated poems will be listed in the inaugural issue of Tupelo Quarterly. All finalists will also be considered for publication.
- All poems submitted to the contest will be considered for publication either in the inaugural or later issues of Tupelo Quarterly.
Who May Submit
The Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry Contest is open to anyone writing in the English language, whether living in the United States or abroad. Translations are not eligible for this contest. Poets submitting work for consideration may be published authors or writers without prior book or journal publications.
Employees of Tupelo Press are not eligible to submit to Tupelo Quarterly contests.
TQ welcomes regular/open submissions from authors already published with Tupelo Press, but we ask that you refrain from submitting work to the TQ contests.
If there is any reason at all that your integrity or ours could be called into question should you win the contest, please do not submit.
Deadline
All entries must be certified by Submittable by midnight of August 15, 2013.
Results
Results will be posted online in the inaugural issue of Tupelo Quarterly, on October 15, 2013.
Submittable sends automated confirmations. Beyond these notifications, kindly refrain from requesting an individual response to confirm receipt of your entry and/or payment. Contest results will be posted in each issue. Thank you for your understanding.
Contest Entry Fee
A contest entry fee of $20 (U.S.) must accompany each submission. Multiple submissions are accepted, as long as each submission is accompanied by a separate $20 contest entry fee.
Why a fee? Tupelo is an independent, nonprofit literary press. Tupelo Quarterly’s contest fees will help defray, but not entirely cover, the cost of reviewing entries, the infrastructure supporting the journal, and help to enable Tupelo Press’s continued publishing of the beautiful books you love.
Submit Your Entry Now
We are an online journal, and as such, will only accept electronic submissions. This saves paper, postage, time, and makes possible the work of editors and judges who live all over the world.
Please upload a brief bio (no more than 100 words) in the cover letter form box below. Attach your contest entry as a single document.
Be sure that your document is complete and formatted correctly before uploading.
Thank you for your participation and your support of Tupelo Press.
We look forward to reading your work!