2016 First Book

Poetry Competition

JUDGE: DANIEL BORZUTZKY

JANUARY 1 – MARCH 31, 2016 

The Cleveland State University Poetry Center welcomes submissions for our First Book Poetry Competition; the winner will receive $1,000, publication, and a standard royalty contract. This year’s contest will be judged by Daniel Borzutzky.

Daniel Borzutzky’s books and chapbooks include, among others, The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016); In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy (Nightboat, 2015); Memories of my Overdevelopment (Kenning Editions, 2015); Bedtime Stories For The End of the World! (Bloof Books, 2015), Data Bodies (The Green Lantern, 2013), The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat, 2011), and The Ecstasy of Capitulation (BlazeVox, 2007). He has translated Raúl Zurita’s The Country of Planks (Action Books, 2015) and Song for his Disappeared Love (Action Books, 2010), and Jaime Luis Huenún’s Port Trakl (Action Books, 2008). His work has been supported by the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pen/Heim Translation Fund. He lives in Chicago.

ELIGIBILITY

1. Manuscripts are eligible for the First Book Poetry Competition if the author has not published or committed to publish a collection of his or her poetry in a book of 48 pages or more with a press run of at least 500 copies. Translations are not eligible.

2. Intimate friends, relatives, or current and former students of judge Daniel Borzutzsky 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.
 

GUIDELINES & NOTES

1. Make sure to record/update your most current information (name, manuscript title, address, phone number, and email address) in your Submittable account; this is the information we will use to contact you. No other cover page or biographical information should be included in your submission and your name should not appear elsewhere in the manuscript. You may include an acknowledgments page that lists previously published poems.

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

3. The CSU Poetry Center reserves the right to consider all entrants for publication; a list of winners and finalists will be posted on the Poetry Center website in late summer/early fall of 2016.

TO SUBMIT

1. Upload your manuscript as a .docx or .pdf to Submittable (mail submissions are no longer eligible).

2. There is a $28 reading fee, which must be paid through Submittable. This year, as a token of our appreciation for your readership and support of innovative literary publishing we will mail each writer a book from our 2016 spring catalog (which will include these titles). Books will ship in April; please make sure that the address listed in your Submittable account is up to date.

3. Email poetrycenter@csuohio.edu with any further questions.