Crab Orchard Review and Southern Illinois University Press are pleased to announce the selections for the 2008 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards. Our final judge, David Wojahn, selected Alison Townsend's PERSEPHONE IN AMERICA as the first-prize winner and Jesse Lee Kercheval's CINEMA MUTO as the second-prize winner. Both collections will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in March 2009.
Submissions for the 2009 Open Competition should not be mailed before October 1, 2008. Submissions should be postmarked from October 1 through November 17, 2008.
Below are the guidelines for this year's Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition:
All unpublished, original collections of poems written in English by United States citizens and permanent residents are eligible* (individual poems may have been previously published). (*Current or former students, colleagues, and close friends of the final judge, Natasha Trethewey, and current students and employees of Southern Illinois University and authors published by Southern Illinois University Press are not eligible for the Open Competition. For questions about judging, please visit http://www.siuc.edu/~crborchd/conpo3.html.) Two volumes of poems will be selected from an open competition of manuscripts postmarked October 1 through November 17, 2008. The first-prize and second-prize winners will each receive a publication contract with Southern Illinois University Press. In addition, the first-prize winner will be awarded a $2000 prize and $1500 as an honorarium for a reading at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; the second-prize winner will be awarded a $500 prize and $1500 as an honorarium for a reading at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Both readings will follow the publication of the poets' collections by Southern Illinois University Press.
Manuscripts should be typewritten, single-spaced, and between 50 and 80 pages long. No more than one poem should appear on a page. Dot-matrix printing that is not letter-quality is not acceptable. A clean photocopy is recommended. Please do not send your only copy of the manuscript since manuscripts will not be returned, and please do not include illustrations. Crab Orchard Review and Southern Illinois University Press assume no responsibility for damaged or lost manuscripts. All submissions must be accompanied by a $25 entry fee. Please make your check out to "Crab Orchard Series in Poetry." All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW.
Submit two title pages for the collection. The author's name, address, and daytime phone number should appear on the first title page only. The author's name should appear nowhere else in the manuscript. An acknowledgments page listing poems previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies should be placed after the second title page.
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED OCTOBER 1, 2008 through NOVEMBER 17, 2008. (Since this is a postmark deadline, there is no need to send Express Mail, Fedex, or UPS. First Class or Priority Mail are preferred.)
Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification of contest results. If you would like confirmation that the manuscript has been received, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard as well. Manuscripts may be under consideration elsewhere, but the series editor must be informed immediately if a collection is accepted for publication.
CRAB ORCHARD SERIES IN POETRY OPEN COMPETITION AWARD WINNERS:
IF YOU DON'T FIND THE INFORMATION YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ON OUR WEBSITE, WE CAN ALWAYS BE REACHED FOR INFORMATION ABOUT SUBSCRIPTIONS, CURRENT GUIDELINES, UPCOMING THEMES, OR CONTESTS BY SENDING A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE TO: