2015 Essay Collection Competition

JUDGE: WAYNE KOESTENBAUM

JANUARY 1 – MARCH 31

 

The Cleveland State University Poetry Center welcomes submissions to their Essay Collection Competition; the winner will receive $1,000, publication, and a standard royalty contract. This year’s contest will be judged by Wayne Koestenbaum.

Wayne Koestenbaum has published over a dozen books, on such subjects as hotels, Harpo Marx, humiliation, Jackie Onassis, opera, and Andy Warhol. His latest book of prose is My 1980s & Other Essays (FSG, 2013); his latest book of poetry is Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background (Turtle Point, 2012). His first solo exhibition of paintings took place at White Columns gallery in New York, in Fall 2012. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center.

INTRODUCTION

The CSU Poetry Center, although primarily known for its focus on contemporary poetry, has a small but rich history of publishing other forms (novellas, pamphlets, chapbooks, guidebooks, and the like). This year we would like to expand our mission by inviting submissions to our Essay Collection Competition, the winner of which will have their book published as the first in a series that hopes to serve as a home for innovative, lyric, literary, or experimental nonfiction collections. See Wayne Koestenbaum’s My 1980s and Other Essays, Eula Biss’ Notes From No Man’s Land, Maggie Nelson’s The Art of Cruelty, Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things To Me, Hilton Als’ White Girls, or Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams as recent collections we’ve loved for their messy structures, exciting subject matter, serious research, and surprising, beautiful language.

ELIGIBILITY

1. All essay collections are welcome, regardless of author’s previous publications; manuscripts should be approximately 100-300 pages in length.

2. Intimate friends, relatives, or current and former students of the judge Wayne Koestenbaum are not eligible to submit. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni of Cleveland State University or the Northeast Ohio MFA Program (NEOMFA) are not eligible to submit their work.

3. Translations are not eligible.

GUIDELINES & NOTES

1. Include one cover page listing your name, manuscript title, address, phone number, and e-mail address and a second manuscript cover page listing the title only (your name should not appear elsewhere on the manuscript).

2. Clearly indicate “Essay Collection Competition” on the manuscript cover page.

3. Do not include a cover letter or biographical information. You may include an acknowledgments page after the cover page, listing any previously published poems as well as previously published full-length collections.

4. Multiple submissions are welcome and simultaneous submissions are acceptable (please inform us if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere).

5. The CSU Poetry Center reserves the right to consider all entrants for publication; a listing of all winters and finalists will be posted on the Poetry Center website.

TO SUBMIT

1. Upload your manuscript to Submittable (mail submissions are no longer eligible).

2. There is a $28 reading fee, which must be paid through Submittable.

3. Please email poetrycenter@csuohio.edu with any further questions.