Deadline: September 30, 2022
Entry fee: $28
About the competition
Every year, the University of Arkansas Press accepts submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and from the books selected awards the $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize in the following summer. For almost a quarter-century the press has made this series the cornerstone of its work as a publisher of some of the country’s best new poetry. The series and prize are named for and operated to honor the co-founder and longtime director of the press, Miller Williams.
“I love poems that vivify and disturb,” says series editor Patrica Smith. “No matter what genre we write in, we’re all essentially storytellers — but it’s poets who toil most industriously, telling huge unwieldy stories within tight and gorgeously controlled confines, stories that are structurally and sonically adventurous, and it’s magic every time it happens. Simply put, when I read a poetry book, I want something to shift in my chest. I want my world to change.”
About the prize
Series editor Patricia Smith serves as the judge for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. With the help of screeners, she awards to three authors publication in the series. This is the most significant award the press can offer: the opportunity for the author’s work to be published with all the dedication and expertise we have to offer. We provide professional copyediting by expert poetry editors, design and production by veteran designers who specialize in the typesetting of verse, and production managed by a house with a history of printing first-rate books. We believe this offers the poet the best possible opportunity to connect with his or her audience in print. This prize goes to all three books selected for the series. Three of the books are announced as finalists for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. One is further chosen as the winner of the prize and receives $5,000 in cash in addition to publication.
Submission guidelines
- Length. Manuscripts must be between sixty and ninety pages.
- Previous publication. The manuscript must be previously unpublished. Individual poems may have been published in chapbooks, journals, and anthologies.
- Translations. Work in translation is not accepted.
- Associations with the editor. Friends, family, current students, and former students of the editor should refrain from submitting.
- Multiple submissions. No more than one manuscript per author.
- Authorship. No more than one author per manuscript.
- Simultaneous submissions. Manuscripts under publication consideration or prize competition elsewhere are allowed provided we are notified immediately of their acceptance.
- Authors previously published in the series. Any author who has had a manuscript published in the series should not apply again until three years after the publication date of said volume.
- Submit your entry here.
