24th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize: August 1 - November 30, 2024 (currently closed)
The A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize is awarded to honor a poet's first book, while also honoring the late founder of BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publishing house of poetry and poetry in translation.
Winner Receives:
- Book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in spring 2026
- $1,000 honorarium
This Year's Judge: Maya C. Popa
Maya C. Popa is most recently the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (W. W. Norton, 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Levis reading prize from VCU. Her first full-length collection, American Faith (Sarabande, 2019), was a recipient of the North American Book Prize and a runner-up in the Kathryn A. Morton Prize judged by Ocean Vuong. She holds a PhD on the role of wonder in poetry and her newsletter, Poetry Today, is one of Substack's best-selling featured publications. The Poetry Editor of Publishers Weekly, she teaches at NYU and elsewhere.
Submissions are invited only through Submittable or by post mail. We do not have the staff capacity to read or respond to manuscripts that are submitted by fax or email.
*Submission fee: $30
*Please note that, without the submission fee, we would not be able to accept contest submissions, or to offer a $1,000 prize to each winner. As BOA is a non-profit press with limited staff capacity, contest submission fees allow us to maintain sufficient editorial resources for careful review of each and every manuscript. We understand that submission fees can be difficult to accommodate, but rest assured that because of them, your submission will be carefully read, reviewed, and considered for this prestigious prize. Thank you for your understanding.
Electronic Submissions
Guidelines for electronic submissions are available at Submittable.com. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on November 30.
Physical Submissions
All physical manuscripts must be mailed (or postmarked) to the below BOA Editions address by November 30, 2024. Please be sure to include the entry form and the $30 entry fee with your submission. Send one copy of each manuscript. Make check or money orders payable to BOA Editions. Do not pay by cash or credit card.
Eligibility:
- Entrants must be a U.S. citizen, a legal resident of the U.S., or have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or Legal Permanent Status (LPS).
- Entrants must be at least 18 years of age.
- Only manuscripts by poets who have yet to publish a full-length book collection of poetry will be considered.
- Individual poems in the submitted manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks, or self-published books, but these poems must be submitted as part of an original manuscript.
- Any published books of poetry disqualify contestants from entering this contest, though books published in other genres do not.(self-published books are okay.)
- Translations and collaborative manuscripts are not eligible.
- Employees, volunteers and board members of BOA Editions, Ltd., or their partners or spouses, or their immediate families, or immediate family of the judge are not eligible.
- Per the Publishing Contest Ethics, as advanced by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), any person who has studied poetry in a formal program with the Final Judge—through a college, university, community program, residency, or private tutorial, within the last two years—is not eligible to submit a manuscript to this contest.
- Authors of BOA titles in other genres and translators who have been under contract with BOA are not eligible to submit.
- No AI-assisted submissions.
Manuscript Format:
- Minimum of 65 pages of poetry (not including Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, etc.), and maximum of 120 pages of poetry.
- Manuscript text should be at least 12 pt. font.
- Name address and telephone number must appear on the title or cover page of the manuscript.
- Do not send loose/unattached artwork or photographs if mailing manuscript in. Artwork is only accepted when integrated into the manuscript itself digitally.
- Paginated consecutively with a table of contents.
- Bound with a binder clip (example).
- Attach publications acknowledgments, if any.
- Include a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of manuscript.
- Do not send by FedEx or UPS.
- Neither late nor early manuscripts will be accepted.
- Contestants may submit the manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but must notify BOA Editions immediately if a manuscript is accepted by another publisher.
- Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered. Winner will be given the opportunity to revise before publication.
- Contestants may submit more than one manuscript, but a separate entry fee and entry form must accompany each manuscript.
- Manuscripts mailed from foreign countries risk not being received before final selections have been made.
Suggested Guidelines:
- Send manuscript in a plain or padded envelope. Please no boxes.
- For notification of competition results, include a business-size SASE.
- Keep a copy of your manuscript, as manuscripts will not be returned.
- We advise that you send your manuscript by first class or priority mail.
Answers to FAQs:
- The winner will be announced in spring 2025.
- The winning manuscript will be published in spring 2026 as an original paperback edition in the New Poets of America Series.
- The winner will retain full copyright of their work.
- The paper from all manuscripts will be recycled after the winner is announced.
- BOA Editions assumes no responsibility for loss of manuscripts.
- The most cost-effective method for mailing your manuscript is to send via USPS media mail.
Send manuscripts, postmarked between August 1 - November 30, to:
BOA Editions, Ltd.
ATTN: A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize
250 N. Goodman Street, Suite 306
Rochester, NY 14607
Thank you!