Deadline: February 3, 2025
Entry fee: $30
About the competition
The Michael Waters Poetry Prize was established in 2013 to honor Michael’s contributions to Southern Indiana Review and American arts and letters.
A prize of $6,000 and publication by SIR Press is awarded annually for a collection of poetry written in English. All entries are considered for publication.
All contest submissions will be considered for book publication. All themes and/or subject matters are eligible. Handwritten submissions will not be accepted. The winner receives a standard publishing contract with SIR Press.
Competition guideline
- Be available for exclusive manuscript publication (individual poems may have been previously
published in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks) by SIR Press. Simultaneous submissions are
acceptable, but if the entry is accepted by another publisher while under consideration, the
author must promptly notify SIR in writing to withdraw the entry. - Include a non-refundable entry fee of $35. Make check or money order payable to Southern
Indiana Review. Please do not send cash. - List the author’s name, street address, email address, and phone number on a cover page.
- Include a Table of Contents of poems submitted, including page number(s).
- List only the title of sections/poems on each page thereafter (to preserve anonymity).
- Consist of at least 40 and no more than 120 pages of poetry in 12-point font (no more than one
poem per page) per each individual submission. The cover/content pages do not count towards
the 120-page maximum. Publication credits, if included, do not count against page limit. All
acknowledgments will be removed from manuscript(s) to preserve anonymity. - Read the whole guideline and submit your entry here.
