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Past Awards

PastAwards

You can find our current and future award opportunities here.


2023 Ekphrastic Poetry Prize

Ekphrasis comes from “description” in Greek. Ekphrastic poems seek to vibrantly describe, interpret, or converse with a visual scene or moment, usually a work of art. They often are about the speaker’s encounter with the art, and how viewing or experiencing it has impacted them.
Are you haunted by a painting that you encountered online, or a sculpture that you stood transfixed before in a museum? Some more contemporary interpretations of ekphrasis can allude to television, cinema, or even music. Is there a specific piece of media that has affected you profoundly? If so—
From December 1, 2023, to January 28, 2024, submit poems that are ekphrastic in some way, that engage dynamically with the art of those around you. The winning poet will receive $3,000 as well as publication. The second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200 respectively, as well as publication. Finalists will also be considered for publication!

About Our Judge:

Steve Bellin-Oka’s first book of poems, Instructions for Seeing a Ghost (2020), won the Vassar Miller Prize from the University of North Texas Press. He is also the author of four chapbooks, including Tell Me Exactly What You Saw and What You Think It Means (2021), winner of the Blue Mountain Review LGBQT+ Poetry Prize. He has been awarded fellowships from the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the National Parks Arts Foundation. He has taught poetry writing and literature at the University of Mississippi, the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and Eastern New Mexico University. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he now lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he teaches at Wyoming Seminary.

 

Steve Bellin-Oka will select the winner from ten finalists curated by the editorial team. What is he looking for specifically? In his own words:

"I’m honored to be this year’s judge for Frontier’s Ekphrastic Poetry Prize and am looking forward to reading your work. While ekphrastic poetry traditionally has been written about visual art, and I’m excited to read poems that respond to paintings and sculpture, I’m also looking forward to reading poems that relate to pop music, street art, film, monuments, architecture—anything that defines contemporary “culture.” I love ekphrastic poems that connect art with real life and ask questions about how art helps us to make sense of the world around us. I love poems of any form—traditional, contemporary, or invented. Burn me with your imagery and figurative language. Make me want to experience both your poem and the work of art you’re writing about over and over again."

 

Guidelines:

  • Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (that is, for this contest, poets with no more than one full-length published work forthcoming at the time of submission).
  • As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we offer a free submission window for historically marginalized poets at the beginning of the contest cycle. The portal will close when we reach twenty-five free submissions.
  • Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
  • Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than five pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
  • Please submit unpublished poems only.
  • We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
  • You may submit multiple times, but each submission requires a separate $20 fee.
  • Please provide a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history and any applicable content warnings. Also, please tell us which work(s) of art inspired your poem(s) in this cover letter.
  • Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily written in English.
  • Please do not submit work if you have a personal relationship with the guest judge.
  • If you haven't already, please verify your email address with Submittable for more consistent communication.
  • We will not accept AI-generated work for this contest.
  • If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page first. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can send an email to contact (at) frontierpoetry (dot) com.

2023 WINNERS

coming soon


2023 Award for New Poets

This fall, we’re delighted to bring back our Award for New Poets! We’re looking to uplift an up-and-coming poet, with no more than one full-length collection forthcoming or published at the time of submission. We award $3,000 for the winning poem, selected by our guest judge. Our second- and third-place winners receive $300 and $200, respectively. All three winners will be published. 

Our judge this year is torrin a. greathouse, whose “Burning Haibun” Frontier Poetry first published in 2017, and who is now an award-winning poet and professor. We love seeing a poet’s origins and the many ways they move and grow in their work, and this award is an opportunity for us to help you along that path! Send us your innovative poems, your passion projects, the work you can’t wait for the world to share in! 

About Our Judge: 

torrin a. greathouse is a transgender cripple-punk poet and essayist. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota. Their work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, the New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and The Kenyon Review. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Effing Foundation for Sex Positivity, Zoeglossia, the Ragdale Foundation, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. They are the author of Wound from the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020), winner of the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and DEED (Wesleyan University Press, 2024). She teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop, the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.

Guidelines:

  • Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (for this contest, we define this as poets with no more than one full-length published work forthcoming at the time of submission).
  • As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, there is a free submission window for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) poets at the beginning of the contest until our cap of fifty. Please note the portal will close when we hit our cap.
  • Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
  • Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than five pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
  • Please submit unpublished poems only.
  • We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
  • You may submit multiple times, but each submission requires a separate $20 fee.
  • Please provide a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history and any applicable content warnings.
  • Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily written in English.
  • Please do not submit work if you have a personal relationship with the judge.
  • If you haven't already, please verify your email address with Submittable for more consistent communication.
  • We will not accept AI-generated work for this contest. 
  • If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page first. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can send an email to contact (at) frontierpoetry (dot) com.

2023 WINNERS

coming soon


2023 Roots & Roads

Not only are root systems vital for a tree to channel sustenance from the soil, but they are also communicators, connecting the plant to its environment and to other plants. Roads, too, are connectors, telling a story of movement and distances. This year, for our inaugural Roots & Roads Prize, Frontier Poetry invites you to imagine your poems as roots and roads, reaching both inward and outward.

We are in search of work that explores the tensions between these ideas, the relationships we have between origin and becoming, between our foundations and the possibilities that are sustained and/or troubled by them. We encourage you to interpret these words loosely and expansively, to let the poem take you where it wants. Bring us your ghosts, your maps, your homes, your alienations, your dreams of the future—lead us somewhere unexpected!

We awarded $3000 to our first place prize winner, $300 to second place, and $200 to third place.

About Our Judge 

Craig Santos Perez is an indigenous Chamoru poet from Guam. He is the author of six books of poetry and the co-editor of seven anthologies. He is a professor in the English department at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, where he teaches Pacific literature, eco-poetry, and food writing.

A Note from Our Judge:

What people, memories, histories, or natural objects root you to place? What real or symbolic roads have you traveled? Have you ever felt uprooted? Have you been lost upon the road of life? These are some of the interrelated questions I hope poets will explore through the Roots & Roads Prize. I look forward to being taken on a journey deep and far into the human experience.

Guidelines

  • Submissions are open to emerging poets with no more than two full length collections published at the time of submission.
  • As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, there is a free submission window for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) poets at the beginning of the contest until our cap of fifty. Please note the portal will close when we hit our cap.
  • Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
  • Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than five pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
  • Please submit unpublished poems only.
  • We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
  • You may submit multiple times, but each submission requires a separate $20 fee.
  • Please include a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history and any applicable content warnings.
  • Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily written in English.
  • Please do not submit work if you have a personal relationship with the judge.
  • If you haven’t already, please verify your email address with Submittable for more consistent communication.
  • If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page first. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can send an email to contact (at) frontierpoetry (dot) com.

2023 WINNERS

First Place Winner

Meriem Evangeline, "Ancestry Told Through Prophecy" 

Second Place Winner

Yiskah Rosenfeld, "On Becoming a Woman" 

Third Place Winner

Edgar Morales, "Motherland"

2023 Runners-Up

Nasim Asgari

Bertha Crombet

Emma Jaques

Rafiat Lamidi

S.J. Pearce 

Linda Ravenswood

2023 Finalists

Jessica Abughattas

Aliyah Blattner

Matthew Buxton 

Elaine Desmond

Tricia Elliott

Kristy Gallegos 

Sera Jonas Jakob 

MAXWELL MCDONOUGH

Sarah Micek 

Hannah Oberman-Breindel

Noel Quiñones

Ayesha Raees

Janet Ruth 

Samira Sadeque

Darius Simpson 

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Caitlin Villacrusis

Constant Williams 


2023 Frontier OPEN

In our pursuit to celebrate the outstanding poets of our present times, Frontier annually hosts a prize for all poets, regardless of publication history. We invite you to send your best work to the OPEN, our biggest prize of the year! The winning poem will be awarded $5,000 and publication.
In addition to the winner, nine finalists will also receive an award of $100 each with publication. The Frontier editorial team will work together to select winners and finalists for this contest.
While we primarily serve as a platform for new and emerging writers, the OPEN is meant to support and elevate the poetry community as a whole. Every year, we look forward to this prize, for which emerging and established poets are considered in equal measure and as a result are often published side by side in Frontier Poetry. We’re excited to read your work!
Guidelines
  • Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
  • As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, there is a free submission window for BIPOC poets at the beginning of the contest until our cap of fifty. Please note the portal will close when we hit our cap.
  • Do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
  • Send up to three poems per submission, for a total of no more than twelve pages. We have no aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
  • Please submit unpublished poems only.
  • We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
  • You may submit multiple times, but each submission requires a separate $20 fee.
  • Please include a brief cover letter that includes a short, third-person bio with your publication history.
  • Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily written in English.
  • Winners and finalists will be announced in the fall of 2023.
  • Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with Frontier’s editors.
  • If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can send an email to contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.

2023 WINNERS

MaKshya Tolbert, “Autobiography of not a horse”

 

2023 Finalists

Yolanda J. Franklin, “Pecola Breedlove Watches Zora Tether in Jordan Peele’s US then Nina Simone Sings in the Background”

Zachariah Claypole White, “Today, while reading the definition of OCD”

Amy Wolstenholme, “The Ballad of Aisle Three”

Georgio Russell, “Halved Sonnets: A Diagram of Distances”

Chace Zachery Morris, “Hex as Language of The Unheard”

Sara Elkamel, “The Seamstress”

2023 Longlist

.CHISARAOKWU.
A.D. Lauren-Abunassar
Abigail Mengesha
Adedayo Agarau
AE Hines
Ajibola Tolase
Alexis Williams
Alyssa Salzberg
Annie Quigley
Callie Jennings
Cocoa Williams
Diya Abaas
Emma Jane Sullivan
Georgio Russell
Ivy Terrisa
Jennifer Shikes Haines
Katie Dozier (KHD)
Mackenzie Schubert Polonyi Donnelly
Maria Nazos
Miriam Akervall
Nicole Adabunu
Nicolette Ratz
Patricia Y. Ikeda
Sara Martin
Sollace Mitchell
Sophie Mills
Tariq Malik
Teri Vela
Ty Holter
Weijia Pan
Ziyi Yan


Breakthrough Chapbook Contest

Here at Frontier, our digital chapbook contest is one of the highlights of our year. This contest is an opportunity to not only lean into the poetic exploration we encourage in all of our submissions, but also to take us on an extended venture into the terrain of your work, in up to thirty pages of poems. We want to see your breakthrough moments, your obsessions, the journey of your voice. All kinds of poetry are welcome; we set no formal or aesthetic requirements, and we invite manuscripts that still need polishing. 

The winner will receive $2,000 and publication, which includes a free, downloadable digital chapbook on our website, fifty physical author copies to share and sell, and the option to enable drop-shipping sales on your chapbook. Additionally, tens of thousands of readers, editors, and magazines will receive chapbook access through our newsletter. This audience can be a formative springboard for your poetic career!

Our guest judge, Kemi Alabi, will select the winner this year from ten finalists curated by our editorial team.

About Our Judge:

Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award. The collection was a Kate Tufts Discovery Award finalist, Chicago Review of Books Award winner, and one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2022. Alabi’s poems appear in The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Boston Review, and Best New Poets. A Periplus Collective mentor, Alabi has received fellowships from MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, and elsewhere. As Head of Creativity & Impact of the gender justice organization Forward Together, Alabi builds cultural power with organizers and artists. They’re coeditor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021), an anthology of Black reproductive justice writing. Born in Wisconsin on a Sunday in July, they now live in Chicago, IL. Find Kemi on Twitter @kemiaalabi.

Guidelines for Submission:
  • Poets of any publication history are welcome to submit.
  • BIPOC writers are welcome to submit for a reduced fee until we reach our cap of fifty.
  • The manuscript should be fifteen to thirty pages of poems, not including front and back matter.
  • The manuscript should be unpublished as a whole, although individual poems may be previously published.
  • Do not include any identifying information in the manuscript itself or in the file name.
  • Please put any acknowledgements in the cover letter field of Submittable and not in the manuscript.
  • Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English. Inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem is primarily in English.
  • Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us immediately if the chapbook is accepted elsewhere.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed, but each manuscript must be submitted separately with the $25 reading fee.
  • Winners and finalists will be announced late summer 2023.
  • If you’d like to view a list of questions that often come up, please see our FAQ page.

2023 WINNERS

Kathryn Hargett-Hsu, "The Skin is a Warm Coat"

2023 Runners Up

Nicole Adabunu, "For Eve, Which Means Life. Means Animal."

Ryan Black, "You Were Never Lovelier"

Kirun Kapur, "The Hunt of the Unicorn"

Nicole Lachat, "The Red We Silk"

Emily Lake Hansen, "On Fire for Decades"

Weijia Pan, "Peppered Path"

Polley Poer, "Creation Delay"

Aimee Seu, "Nepenthe Radiant"

Malik Thompson, "incision"

2023 Finalists

Naomi Azriel

Jessica Ballen

Aida Bardissi

Mihir Bellamkonda

Ann-Marie Blanchard

Wendy Bourgeois

Mary Brownell

Matthew Buxton

Ellara Chumashkaeva

Elizabeth Coleman

Kym Cunningham

Maria Esquinca

Stacy Forbes

Tatiana Gómez

Linnea Harper

Javeria Hasnain

Aiden Heung

Erik Jonah

Alyson Kissner

Hannah Lee

Mary MacGowan

Tara Mesalik MacMahon

Henry Mills

Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi

Carol Park

Lucie Pereira

Isa Pickett

Julie Runacres

Wendy Scher

Danie Shokoohi

Kashiana Singh

Kaitlyn Snodgrass

Ojo Taiye


The 2023 Hurt & Healing Prize

Closed January 31, 2023

Dear poets, poetry, to me, has always been about growth, about understanding myself and others through the act of writing feelings and memories and wounds and relationships onto that blank page.

Kaveh Akbar, in Morning Prayer with the Rat King, wrote: "I imagine the sea’s made of actual / tears this would explain the salt      think of all / the disconsolate toddlers weeping right now into / the earth the tears must go somewhere."

The tears must go somewhere. This new year, we are launching with a Hurt and Healing Prize. Send us your tears, your wounds poked and prodded and brushed gently. Give us the gift of that special hope poetry alone seems to offer so well: seeing our pain shared in others, in their own mysterious privacy, somehow makes every pain easier to bear. Easier to heal.

The first place winner will receive $3000 + publication. Second and third place winners will receive $300 and $200 respectively, as well as publication.

Guest Judge Andrés Cerpa is the author of Bicycle in a Ransacked City: An Elegy, and The Vault from Alice James Books. A recipient of fellowships from McDowell and Canto Mundo, his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, Puerto Rico en mi Corazón, The Breakbeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNext, The Nation + elsewhere. He holds degrees from the University of Delaware and Rutgers University Newark.

Guidelines

  • Submissions are open to emerging poets with no more than two full length collections published at the time of submission.
  • Send us only your best, polished work.
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than 3 poems (5 pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio.
  • International submissions are welcome.
  • Submission fee of $20.
  • Deadline is January 31st.
  • Please review our FAQ page for more information: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq

2023 WINNERS

Eliza Gilbert, "My Father Postpones His Appearance on Wheel of Fortune While I'm in Rehab"

2023 Runners Up

Geramee Hensley, "Ode to My Family in Key of Friend Chicken & Fried Rice"

Sara Elkamel, "Saturday"

2023 Finalists

Christopher Greggs
Dalia Elhassan
Grace Ezra
Heather Nagami
Lisa Kerr
Mia Willis
Shana Ross


The 2022 Global Poetry Prize

Closed November 20, 2023
The moment when poets meet poets, across oceans and cultures and continents, drives our team at Frontier. The magic of that meeting is our heart, the very meaning of our name. With the Global Poetry Prize, we're seeking to make specific and deliberate space for our community that stretches within and beyond the borders of the United States. This year, we're focusing on four distinct regions: South Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Every year, we envision these regions changing, and we hope to include more and more global poets in this series over the years.
Our team will choose ten finalists to represent each region to send to the four individual judges, and they will each select a winner to represent their region. These winners will receive $1000 and publication on Frontier Poetry. Every poem submitted will also be considered for publication.
Submissions are open to poets who identify as having significant or deeply rooted connections to the region they seek to represent (i.e. including family/cultural ties). You do not have to currently reside in the location. We welcome writers who have complicated identities and histories, but we will not choose writers who would be tourists in the region they wish to represent.
Our guest judges are:
Tarfia Faizullah, for the region of South Asia
Saddiq Dzukogi, for the region of Africa
Aria Aber, for the region of Europe
JP Dancing Bear, for the region of North America

Guidelines

  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than 3 poems (5 pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio.
  • Submission fee of $20.
  • Deadline is November 15.
  • Please review our FAQ page for more information: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq

2022 WINNERS

South Asia

Iqra Khan, "Ars Poetica: Kohinoor (Mountain of Light)"

Africa

Abigail Mengesha, "Map"

Europe

Carlos A. Pittella, "The death of Jean Charles de Menezes"

North America

Javier Sandoval, "Requiem for the Ungoverned"

2022 Finalists

South Asia

Alycia Pirmohamed

Ari Mokdad

Karan Kapoor

Marco Yan

Neha Maqsood

Tariq Malik

Teja Sudhakar

Yamini Pathak

Zilka Joseph

Africa

Ajibola Tolase

Bayo Aderoju

Delight Chinenye Ejiaka

Esinam Bediako

Jamila Osman

Jarred Thompson

Samuel Ugbechie

Sara Elkamel

Thomas Kneeland

Europe

Alice White

Chloe Tsolakoglou

emet ezell

Milica Mijatovic

Milla van der Have

S K Grout

Swati Sudarsan

Vasiliki Albedo

North America

Anaïs Deal-Márquez

Bayowa Ayomide

Híl Davis

Jed Meyers

Nicole Adabunu

Sara Rivera

Serena Chopra

Sophia Hall

Stella Wong


The 2022 Nature & Place Prize

Closed September 15, 2022

In her urgent poem, “Trilliums,” the late Mary Oliver wanders through the natural world “listen[ing] to the earth-talk, the root-wrangle, the arguments of energy, the dreams lying just under the surface” as she observes the trilliums in full bloom before eventually becoming the very flower of the poem’s name. In our pursuit of gentleness, nostalgia, and a reimagining of "home," Frontier Poetry is launching a new contest called “Nature and Place.”

We’re looking for poems rich and robust in language, technique, and form that pay homage to the natural world and all of the small marvels that occur in nature. We’re also interested in poems that observe geography and the landscape of home. Frontier Poetry warmly encourages poets of all backgrounds, identities and ethnicities to submit. You're welcome here.

Guest judge Amaud Johnson was born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, Amaud Jamaul Johnson is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace StegnerFellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize

Guidelines:

  • Submissions are open to all poets.
  • Send us only your best, polished work.
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than 3 poems (5 pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio.
  • International submissions are welcome.
  • Submission fee of $20.
  • Deadline is September 15th.

2022 WINNER

Anna Newman, “de arena & calce or: of sand & quicklime or: hydrangeas”

2022 Runners Up

Dan Barton, "River Eclogue: Narcissus & Echo at the Bridge"

Noel Quiñones, "How to Color Mami"

2022 Finalists

Carling McManus

Jessica Poli

JP Grasser

Kinsale Drake

Luisa Igloria

Sebastian Merrill

torrin a. greathouse


 

The 2022 Frontier OPEN

Closed July 18, 2022

In our pursuit to recognize today's best poets, we want to celebrate one outstanding piece of poetry, OPEN to all poets, with a $5000 award and publication.

Ten finalists will also receive $100 each and all winners will earn publication with Frontier Poetry. The Frontier staff will select the winners and finalists. The winners and finalists will be announced in the Fall of 2021.

While we primarily serve as a platform for new writers, this prize is meant to support and elevate the poetry community on the whole. We look forward to offering this annual prize where emerging and established poets are considered in equal measure.

Guidelines:

  • Submissions are open to all poets writing in English.
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than ONE poem per submission. There is no line-limit. Poems may be any length, any style, or any subject.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed, but each new poem requires a new submission and fee.
  • International submissions are welcome.

2022 WINNER of the $5000 Prize

Yi Wei, "Diction"

2022 Finalists

Adedayo Agarau, "Lilac"

Amy Wang, "autumn homecomings" 

Billie R. Tadros, “Because ‘I do take this woman to be my lawful wedded wife’ is a performative utterance, but so is ‘I now pronounce you—”

Chelsea Dingman, "Mass (a reverse sestina)"

Georgio Russell, "Portrait of My Arrival as Grief"

Grace MacNair, "Trophic Level/Ode to a Roadkill Doe"

jason b. crawford, "Impact of Return"

Kiki Nicole, "BORN, SICK"

Shakeema Smalls, "Watermelon Woman" 


The 2022 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest

Closed May 2022

Chapbooks are a huge milestone for poets, and we’re always looking forward to the Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest—where we get to find that one electric bundle of poems that rocks our world in less than 30 pages. We welcome manuscripts that need some polishing as our editors are always looking forward to working with the authors to make the book the best it can be for publication in 2021. The winner of the FDCC will receive $2000 and publication of the free, downloadable chapbook on Frontier, and 50 physical author copies to share and sell. Most exciting of all: the chapbook will also be distributed to tens of thousands of readers, editors, agents, and magazines through our newsletter. Don’t underestimate the power of this reach to empower your career as a poet.

You can read our 2018 Winner, Xiao Yue Shan's How Often I Have Chosen Love, and our 2019 Winner, Shadow Black by Naima Tokunow, was selected by Jericho Brown! Currently, they have over 20,000 views / downloads combined. In the Year of our Making & Unmaking by Frederick Speers was selected by Carl Phillips to be our winner in 2020, and Abby Johnson's Opportunity Cost, selected by Kazim Ali, won in 2021.

Our guest judge Tom Sleigh will select the winner this year from ten finalists selected by our editorial team.

Guidelines

  • Contest is open for international poets, but the poems must be in English.
  • Manuscript should be 15-30 pages (not including front/back-matter.)
  • Manuscript should be on the whole unpublished, although individual poems can be previously published.
  • Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us if the chapbook is accepted elsewhere.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed, but each submitted chapbook will have the $20 fee.
  • Do not include bio information in the manuscript itself.

2022 Honorable Mentions

Sera Gamble, Once Upon A Time We Never Washed Our Hands
Sean Cho A., Subjectivity Test
Meghan Dahn, Let Nest

2022 Finalists

Jasmine An, Counterpoint
Colin Bailes, Assemblage after the Wreck
Caleb Nichols, Soft Animal Oft Anima
Wylde Parsley, the anonym gospels
Trace DePass, Sonic Gnostics’
teri elam, Forever We


The 2022 New Voices Contest

Closed February 15, 2022

The new year is here! We want to open up 2022 with a great opportunity for an up-and-coming poet, judged by José Olivarez. This New Voices Contest will offer $3000 to the author of the judge's favorite poem. 2nd and 3rd place will receive $300 and $200 respectively. We're looking to shine a light on newer poets—only authors with no more than two full length collection currently published may submit.

Send us all that hot urge and energy saved up over the ramshackle year of 2020—send us your best. We also warmly encourage poets of all backgrounds, identities and ethnicities to submit. You're welcome here.

José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. He is the co-host of the poetry podcast, The Poetry Gods. In 2018, he was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association and named a Debut Poet of 2018 by Poets & Writers. In 2019, he was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Paris Review, and elsewhere.

Guidelines

  • Submissions are open to emerging poets only. No more than two full length collection published by time of submission.
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than three poems per submission. There is no line-limit. Poems may be any length, any style, or any subject.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed, but each new submission requires a new fee.
  • Please include a brief cover letter with your professional bio and a brief introduction.
  • International submissions are welcome.

2022 WINNER

Donte Collins, "Small and Personal" 

2022 Runner Ups

Ae Hee Lee, "Anything You Can Find in the World You Can Find in the Body" 

Megan Kim, "My Name Means Pearl—"

2022 Finalists

Aris Kian

donia salem harhoor

Khaya Osborne

Mag Gabbert

Natasha Rao

Pendambaye Smith

Tamara Raidt


The 2021 Industry Prize

Closed November 14, 2021

Welcome to the 2021 Frontier Industry Prize! For this one, we want to award one poem the $3000 prize—selected by a panel of judges representing two stellar independent presses that are at the foundations of our community: Michael Wiegers of Copper Canyon Press and Jenny Molberg of Pleiades Press.

The two judges will collaborate to select a single winning poem from a group of finalists for the $3000 prize and publication on Frontier.

Our Frontier team will select the ten finalists—we're excited to get to put some amazing poets in front of these amazing professionals. We're excited as well to reward our 2nd and 3rd place poems, selected by the judges, with $200 / $100 respectively and with publication on Frontier Poetry. The winner and finalists will be announced Spring of 2022.

  • Submissions are open to emerging poets—submitters should have no more than two full-length collections out or forthcoming at the time of submission.
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • ONE poem per submission (due to overwhelming response, and for the sanity of our readers)
  • There is no line-limit. Poems may be any length, any style, or any subject.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • International submissions are welcome.

2021 WINNER

Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, “Don’t Look Back, Little Halo”

2021 Runner Ups

Michelle Peñaloza, “I Tell My Mother I Don’t Think Trying To Get Pregnant During a Pandemic is Good Idea”
Anders Villani, “Poison”

2021 Finalists

Sara Elkamel
Laura Joyce-Hubbard
Josephine Blair Cipriano
Jeff Whitney
Danie Shokoohi
Camille McDaniel
Bola Opaleke


The 2021 Frontier Award for New Poets

Closed September 19, 2021

We're excited to host our 2020 Frontier Award for New Poets! This award is for authors with no more than one full length collection at the time of submission.

A distinguished panel of emerging poets will guest judge the contest: Rosbub Ben-Oni, Andres Cérpa, & Mai Der Vang.

Frontier Poetry selected the top ten submissions, and the winning poem and honorable mentions will be selected by the panel of judges, to be announced in the fall. The winning poet will be awarded $3000 and publication on Frontier Poetry. Second and third place will win $300 & $200 respectively, as well as publication. The top ten finalists will also be recognized.​

We do not hold preference for any particular style or topic—we simply seek the best poem we can find. Send us work that is blister, that is color, that strikes hot the urge to live and be. We strongly invite poets from all communities and backgrounds. You and your words are welcome here.​

Guidelines

  • Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (poets with no more than one full-length published works forthcoming at the time of submission).
  • Unpublished poems only.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.
  • No more than 3 poems (5 pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • International submissions are welcome.

2021 WINNER

Chibuihe Obi Achimba“a sonnet: a slaughter field”

2021 Runner Ups

Samuel Piccone, “Herma”

Emily Hyland, “Ashes Arts and Crafts”

2021 Finalists

Christina Miles
Julia Anna Morrison
Kimberly Nguyen
Mag Gabbert
Maria Gregorio
Shannan Mann
Yvette Siegert


The 2021 Frontier OPEN

Closed July 18, 2021

2021 WINNER of the $5000 Prize

Chaun Ballard

2021 Finalists

Sneha Subramanian Kanta
Christiane Jacox
Kelly Weber
Emma De Lisle
Natalie Dunn
Kimberly Nguyen
Raphael Jenkins
Heidi Seaborn
Shaina Jones


The 2021 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest

Closed May 16, 2021

Guest Judge: Kazim Ali

2021 WINNER

Abby Johnson, Opportunity Cost

2021 Finalists

Will Russo, Dreamsoak
Ari Gtz Scz, Weather Tomorrow
K.D. Harryman, Alprazoland
Matthew Gellman, Night Logic
Caroline Chavatel, Issuance
Shawn Hoo, Of the Florids
Andre Hoilette, Cothilda, a flamewoman
Jeff Whitney, Thirteen Stories
Simon Shieh, Every Scar is an Eye


 

The 2021 New Voices Contest

Closed February 15, 2021

Guest Judge: Donika Kelly

2021 WINNER

S. Kim, "Assimilamentations"

2021 Runner Ups

A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, “Abandoned Sestina”

Syd Westley, “Interlocution”

2021 Finalists

Adedayo Agarau
Bola Opaleke
Erin McCoy
féi hernandez
Grace Wagner
Josephine Blair
Kate Arden
Stephanie Chang


The 2020 Frontier OPEN

Closed November 15, 2020

2020 WINNER

Kayleb Rae Candrilli, "A Marble Run for Another End-of-Days"

2020 Finalists

Kim Addonizio, "Cracked Logic"
Elizabeth Shvarts, "Queer American"
Itiola Jones, "Original Sin"
Taylor Byas, "An So You Want a Poem"
Taneum Bambrick, "Poem for Ellensburg"
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, "Letter to My Son"
Joshua Nguyen, "Hoarder"
Remi Recchia, "Walking with My Lover to Bury Our Dead Fish"
Sabrina San Miguel, "Teaching your Homegirl about the Root Chakra"


The 2020 Frontier Award for New Poets

Closed September 20, 2020

Guest Judges: Paige Lewis, Camonghne Felix, and Jake Skeets.

2020 WINNER

Taylor Byas, "South Side"

2020 Runner Ups

Samantha Samakande, "ON THE THING I CANNOT EXPLAIN TO MY HUSBAND"

Nome Emeka Patrick, "The Body Walks Through Grief Toward God"

2020 Finalists

Sahar Muradi
Paola Liendo
Darius Simpson
Justin Jannise
Marvin Hodges
Iloh Onyekachi
Mag Gabbert


The 2020 Industry Prize

Closed July 19, 2020

Guest Judges: Carmen Giménez Smith, Daniel Slager, and Peter LaBerge.

2020 WINNER

Michelle Phương Ting, "The Long Afterlife"

2020 Runner Ups

Chaun Ballard, "While I Walk, My Brother Assures My Nephew There Are Wildflowers Growing in Minneapolis"

Adedayo Agarau, “Bad Dream with My Grandmother’s Stroke”

2020 Finalists

Chelsea Bunn
Chelsea DesAutels
Jamila Osman
Marisa Tirado
Michelle Macfarlane
Michelle Peñaloza
Saúl Hernández


The 2020 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest

Closed May 17, 2020

Guest Judge: Carl Phillips

2020 WINNER

Frederick Speers, In the Year of Our Making & Unmaking (Coming Spring 2021!)

2020 Finalists

Ajanae Dawkins, Heirs
Nicole A. Greaves, Conventicle
Erica Charis-Molling, How We Burn
Stephanie Yue Duhem, A Witch Named
Lupita Eyde-Tucker, How to Ride a Train in the Andes
Grace Wagner-ODaniel, Halcyon Days
J’Sun Howard, Black Effigy
Dujie Tahat, BALIKBAYAN
Noʻu Revilla, letters to the gut house


2020 Antioch-Fellowship Prize

Closed February 15, 2020

2020 WINNER

Momtaza Mehri

2020 Runner Ups

Madeleine Cravens
Joanna Ng

2020 Finalists

Despy Boutris
Jasmine L. Combs
Snigdha Koirala
Claire Kaminski
Michael Frazie
Theo LeGro
Nicholas Nichols


The 2019 Frontier OPEN

Closed November 15, 2019

2019 WINNER

“A Brief History of Mercy” by JP Grasser

2019 Finalists

Gail Entrekin
Xiao Yumi
Leyla Colpan
Jennifer Garfield
Jasmine Smith
C. Samuel Rees
Daniella Tootsie-Watson
Jed Myers
David Joez Villaverde
KT Herr


 

The 2019 Frontier Award for New Poets

Closed September 15, 2019

Guest judges: Ocean Vuong, Kaveh Akbar, and Eve L. Ewing.

2019 WINNER

“[X][Y]:[X][X]” by Golden

2019 Runner Ups

“THE NAMING” by Alan Semerdjian
“Lot’s Wife” by Diamond Forde

2019 Finalists

Helli Fang
Bryan Byrdlong
Lauren Ubbing
Emily Khilfeh
Chelsea Wagenaar
Chloe Honum
Alycia Pirmohamed


 

The 2019 Industry Prize

Guest judges: Jeff Shotts—Executive Editor of Graywolf Press, Kwame Dawes—Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner, and Sarah Gambito—Co-founder of Kundiman.

2019 WINNER

"After April Rain" by Elizabeth Oxley

2019 Runner Ups

“Inheritance” by ae hee lee
“Twelve” by Olatunde Osinaike

2019 Finalists

Christopher Louvet
Sadiqa de Meijer
Jerl Surratt
Threa Almontaser
Emily Lawson
Rachel Harkai
Samuel Rees


 

The 2019 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest

Closed May 15, 2019

Guest judge: Jericho Brown.

2019 WINNER

Shadow Black by Naima Yael Tokunow

2019 Runner Ups

in spite of years of silence by Ryan Jones
A Seven in Horses by Jeff Whitney

2019 Finalists

Adela Najarro
Isabella DeSendi
Kelly Weber
Kirk Schlueter
Makmak Faunlagui
Mark Wagenaar
Simon Shieh


 

2019 Antioch-Fellowship Prize

2019 WINNER

Cassie Garrison (read an interview about her experience at Antioch here)

2019 Finalists

Sarah Key
Genevieve Paiement
Esther Ra
Noel Quiñones
Leila Ortiz
William Evans
Fay Dillof
Trace Howard
DePass
Elisabet Velasquez
Mick Powell
Dujie Tahat
Kaja Lucas
David Joez Villaverde


 

2018 Frontier Open

2018 WINNER

“Migrations” by Mark Wagenaar

2018 Runner Ups

“Expelling Venus” by Elizabeth Oxley
“Secret Hymn” by Sam Zafris

2018 Finalists

E.D. Watson
Jocelyn Williams
Korey Williams
Hillary Martin
K. Jagai
Oriana Ivy


 

2018 Frontier Award for New Poets

Guest judge: Victoria Chang.

2018 WINNER

“The Anorexic’s Aubade” by Kirk Schlueter

2018 Runner Ups

“Heart postpartum” by Cara Waterfall
“Self-Portrait No. 5 (Phoenix and Lullabies)” by Cynthia Manick

2018 Finalists

Hannah King
Khaty Xiong
Jacob Nelson
Meghann Plunkett
Yaccaira Salvatierra
Monica Ong
Hilda Weiss


2018 Summer Poetry Award

2018 WINNER

“Louisiana Requiem” by Heather Treseler

2018 Runner Ups

“AFTER READING DJ KHALED...” by Leila Chatti
“Singularity” by Aurora Masum-Javed

2018 Finalists

Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson
Ying-Ying Zhang
Marlin Figgins
Karl Iglesias
Zilka Joseph
Tokorima Taihuringa
Samuel Wright Fairbanks


2018 Industry Prize

Guest judges: Don Share, Editor of Poetry; Nicole Sealey, Executive Director of Cave Canem; & Matthew Zapruder, Editor of Wave Books.

2018 WINNER

"Dress code for an immigration interview" by Kristin Chang

2018 Tied for Second Place

“Bosky Farm” by Gabriel Kruis
”Polyphagia” by Brian Tierney

2018 Finalists

Elizabeth Herron
Madhur Anand
Jasmine Reid
Carlos Gomez
Deborah Fried-Rubin
Inam Kang
Jessica Hincapie


2018 Digital Chapbook Contest

2018 WINNER

“How Often I Have Chosen Love” by Xiao Yue Shan

2018 Finalists

Catherine Strisik
Linette Reeman
Becky Boyle
Tanya Ko-Hong
Kristin Chang
Seema Yasmin
Nicole Stockburger
Simone Person
Seif-Eldeine Och


2017 Frontier Open

2017 WINNER

“Tim” by Tiana Clark

2017 Finalists

Chad Oness
Rachel Jorgensen
Jessica Turney
Chaun Ballard
Amanda Hawkins
Bola Opaleke
Mason Henderson
Mackenzie Whitehead-Bust
Ebony Chinn
Regina Marie


2017 Frontier Award for New Poets

Guest judge: Tyehimba Jess.

2017 WINNER

“Souvenir” by Todd Smith

2017 Runner Ups

“Love poem with a knife” by Kara Jackson
“deciduous qween IV” by Matty Layne Glasgow

2017 Honorable Mentions

“Undone” by Brionne Janae
“the neighbor’s house” by Benjamin Hertwig

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