Past Awards

Summer Poetry Award

Closed July 15, 2018

Thank you to all of our submitters for the Summer Poetry Award this year! We are eagerly reading through your submissions and will announce our selections in October.

Frontier Poetry staff will select the winning poem. The winning poet will be awarded $2000 and publication on Frontier Poetry.

Honorable mentions will also receive $100 and publication on Frontier. We do not hold preference for any particular style or topic—we simply seek the best poem we can find.

• Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (poets with no more than two full-length published works forthcoming 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• Unpublished poems only.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.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Submission fee of $20.

 

---

Industry Prize

Closed May 15, 2018

Thank you to all of our submitters! Your support means the world to us. 

For this prize, we want to give our submitters a chance to be read by some of the most influential persons across our industry: a magazine editor, a director of a professional poetry organization, and a book editor. The three judges will collaborate to choose one winning poem, and two runners-up. 2018's panel included:

Don Share, Editor of Poetry 

Nicole Sealey, Executive Director of Cave Canem

Matthew Zapruder, Editor of Wave Books

The winner of the Industry Prize will receive $3000 and publication on Frontier. The second and third place poems will win $200 and $100 respectively.The editors of Frontier will select the finalists from which the judges will make their decisions. Most exciting of all: the poems will be validated by a panel of leaders in our poetry community. 

Contest Window: March 15 - May 15

• Submissions are open to emerging poets—submitters should have no more than two full-length collections out or forthcoming at the time of submission.
• No identifying information in the submission document. Our diverse team of readers will read all submissions blind.
• Unpublished poems only.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.
• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and about yourself.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Submission fee of $20.

2018 WINNER

"Dress code for an immigration interview" by Kristin Chang

2018 Tied for Second Place

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

2018 Finalists

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

 

---

Digital Chapbook Contest

Closed March 15, 2018

Thank you to all of our submitters this year! The response has been overwhelming and we hope to have read all of your beautiful little books by the middle of June this year, if not before. We are doing our absolute best to get the results back to you folks.

Chapbooks are a huge milestone for emerging 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.

The winner of the FDCC will receive $2000 and publication of the free, downloadable chapbook on Frontier. Most exciting of all: the chapbook will also be distributed to tens of thousands of readers, influencers, editors, agents, and magazines through our newsletter. Don’t underestimate the power of this reach to empower your career as a poet.

The editors of Frontier will select the winning chapbook.

Contest Window: January 15 - March 15

• Contest is open for international poets, but the poems must be in English.
• Poets with more than two full-length collections published or forthcoming are ineligible.
• Manuscript should be 10-30 pages.
• 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 chapbook must be submitted individually.
• Do not include bio information in the manuscript itself.

2018 WINNER

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

2018 Finalists

“Insectum Gravitas” by Catherine Strisik
“Invention of the Mouth” by Linette Reeman
“Preternatural” by Becky Boyle
“The War Still Inside” by Tanya Ko-Hong
“Griefdom” by Kristin Chang
“Neologisms” by Seema Yasmin
“Nowhere Buelah” by Nicole Stockburger
“Smoke Girl” by Simone Person                                                                                                                                        “Voices of a Forgotten Letter” by Seif-Eldeine Och

 

---

Frontier Open: One Poem // $5000

Closed November 15, 2017

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.

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

Submissions accepted from poets at all stages of their career.

Contest Window: September 15 - November 15

2017 WINNER

“Tim” by Tiana Clark

2017 Finalists

“Say Nothing” by Chad Oness
“Speak” by Rachel Jorgensen
“Forgiveness” by Jessica Turney
“apparel” by Chaun Ballard
“Study Tour” by Amanda Hawkins
“Ila Sisi, Ila Sisi” by Bola Opaleke
“Watching a Ruined Dog Die in a Dream” by Mason Henderson
“Carrying Season” by Mackenzie Whitehead-Bust
“Ars Poetica in Blue” by Ebony Chinn
“Fall” by Regina Marie

 

---

Award for New Poets

2018 Open: July 15 - September 15

Frontier Poetry staff will select the top fifteen submissions and honorable mentions, and the winning poems were selected by the guest judge. The winning poet will be awarded $2000 and publication on Frontier Poetry. Second and third place will win $300 & $200 respectively, as well as publication. The top fifteen finalists will also be recognized.

Submissions accepted from emerging poets only, with no more than two collections published.

• Submissions are open to new and emerging writers (poets with no more than two full-length published works forthcoming 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.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Submission fee of $20.

2017 WINNERS

First Place: “Souvenir” by Todd Smith

Second Place: “Love poem with a knife” by Kara Jackson

Third Place: “deciduous qween IV” by Matty Layne Glasgow

Honorable mentions: “Undone” by Brionne Janae; “the neighbor’s house” by Benjamin Hertwig

Tyehimba Jess guest judged the 2017 contest. Jess's beautiful collection, Olio, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.