Deadline: December 16, 2022
Entry fee: $20
About the competition
At Writer’s Relief, we know how challenging it is for poets to get their poetry manuscripts published. So we’re very happy to sponsor the WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest and support the work of a talented poet.
In 1994, Writer’s Relief started doing business a mere stone’s throw from the New Jersey Meadowlands: a large ecosystem of vital wetlands in the metropolitan region. Home to many species of plant life, fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, the Meadowlands are an important bird habitat. However, located so close to urban development, the conservation of the Meadowlands is imperative. In this fragile environment that is home to numerous endangered and threatened species, the water sedge is an endangered plant struggling to survive.
The efforts of water sedge to flourish despite difficult odds seems kindred in spirit to poets hoping to successfully publish their poetry books and chapbooks in an uncooperative publishing environment. With the WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest, we can help our winning poets get published and thrive. The winning poet’s chapbook will receive both print and e-book publication through our Self-Publishing Relief division. All rights and royalties belong to the winner.
Contest Judge: Luisa A. Igloria, Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia and author of 14 poetry books, inaugural recipient of the 2015 Resurgence Poetry Prize (UK), and a member of the board of The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk.
Competition guidelines
- CONCEALED SUBMISSION: DO NOT include your name or contact info anywhere on the manuscript; include your name and contact information on the entry form
- File Name: PoetryChapbookManuscript.doc (or .docx or .rtf)
- Submit the manuscript as one file
- 12-point Times New Roman
- Single-spaced, typed
- 1 poem per page (Note: Though poems can be more than 1 page long, each poem must start on a new page regardless of length.)
- Include table of contents
- Include cover/title page
- Include acknowledgements page (any previous publications of the poems in the manuscript)
- Include page numbers
- Do NOT include any images or illustrations in manuscript
- 24-48 pages
- Each entry must include the $20 entry fee
- U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY only are permitted to submit (Because the winning manuscript will be published using Amazon, their rules prohibit us from choosing a winner for this contest if they live outside the U.S.)
- Only poets over 18 years of age are eligible to submit
- Current or former clients and employees and their family members, or anyone otherwise affiliated with Writer’s Relief and its subsidiaries, are not eligible to enter the WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest
- Submit your entry here.
