The Georgia Poetry Prize 2025 Competition

Dates for submission: Manuscripts may be submitted between 9:00 a.m. EST on October 1 and 11:59 p.m. EST on November 30. Winners will be announced in early March.

Contest queries can be directed to submissions@uga.edu. The press will not accept phone calls regarding The Georgia Poetry Prize. If you encounter any technical difficulties while using the submissions manager, don't hesitate to contact our submission manager support: support@submittable.com and/or phone: (855) 467-8264, ext. 2. The $30 entry fee can be paid online via credit card or PayPal. At this time, we are unable to waive submission fees under any circumstances.

Selection process: Manuscripts are first read by 2-3 preliminary judges, with these manuscripts being split evenly between the judges. The preliminary judges select five to ten finalists each (number of finalists is at the discretion of the main judge); the pool of finalist manuscripts is read by an annually designated chief judge, who makes the final selection of one winning manuscript and a list of up to four (4) runners-up. The author of the winning manuscript receives a cash award of $1,000, and their collection is subsequently published by the University of Georgia Press under a standard book contract. The winner has ten days to accept the award and ten days to sign the contract following receipt of the initial contract draft. If you have a question about your submission, please contact submissions@uga.edu.

Eligibility: The competition is open to writers in English, whether published or unpublished. Previous winners of this award are not eligible to win again. Writers must be residents of North America. 

• Conflict of Interest: No submissions will be accepted if a submitter is related to the head Judge in any of the following forms: friends, family, colleagues, and current or former students. In service to that, the Press instructs submitters to refrain from submitting if they are related in any the aforementioned ways. The Press reserves the sole right to disqualify that submission without reimbursement of the entry fee if the submitter is in violation of the conflict of interest.

Manuscript Guidelines

1. Manuscripts are recommended to be a minimum of 50 pages to a recommended maximum of 100 pages of original poetry. No more than one poem should appear on a page. 
2. Please be sure manuscript pages are numbered.
3. Please include a table of contents.
4. Please use a standard, easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman in twelve-point size.
5. Poems included in the submission may have appeared previously in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks, but may not have been previously published in a book-length collection of the author’s own work.
6. Authors may submit more than one manuscript to the competition for consideration as long as no material is duplicated between submissions. Each submission will require a separate entry fee.
7. Manuscripts under consideration for this competition may be submitted elsewhere at the same time. Please withdraw your manuscript if it is accepted by another publisher and should no longer be considered for The Georgia Poetry Prize competition. Withdrawal can be completed via the submissions manager website. Entry fees are not refundable.

All manuscript materials must be anonymized. The intent of this contest is that manuscripts will be considered on the merits of the poetry and that judges will not be aware of the names or publication records of the authors. Judges will also not be privy to cover letters. Please do not include your name on the pages of the manuscript—only in the form boxes of the electronic submission manager. The first page of the manuscript should include the title of the collection only.

If any identifying information is included in the manuscript or material, the Press reserves the sole right to disqualify that submission without reimbursement of the entry fee. In service to that, the Press instructs submitters to refrain from identifying themselves in the pages of the manuscript and to exclude any previous publication acknowledgments; if a judge recognizes the work of the submitter, they will recuse themselves and the submission will be reassigned.

 
Confirmation of receipt and notification: You should receive an e-mail confirmation immediately after submission. An announcement of winners and finalists will be sent to all entrants via e-mail in early March.

Statement of Integrity: The University of Georgia is thoroughly committed to academic integrity in all of its endeavors, and the University of Georgia Press adheres to all University of Georgia policies and procedures. To help ensure the integrity of the competition, manuscripts are judged independent of authorial identity. Judges in The Georgia Poetry Prize competition are instructed to avoid conflicts of interest of all kinds.