9^th Annual Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book of Poetry Contest

January 1 - April 15, 2008

Judge's Prize: $3,000

For poets who have not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.

Judged together by Jeffrey Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press, Carol Ann Davis, and Garrett Doherty, Editors of the esteemed literary journal Crazyhorse.
All who enter will receive a copy of the winning book at no charge.

All previously unpublished poems in each submitted manuscript will be considered individually for inclusion in a future edition of Crazyhorse, which will set aside a significant number of pages for that purpose.

Winner will be awarded publication and national distribution.
All finalists will be considered for publication.

Guidelines

Manuscript Requirements:

Submit a previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscript between 48-80 pages, enclosed in a simple folder, with two cover pages: one with title of the manuscript only, the other with title of manuscript, name, address, telephone number and email address. Cover letter or bio optional. Include a table of contents and an acknowledgments page. Neither cover letter, bio, nor acknowledgments will be read until the conclusion of the competition.

All manuscripts will be read anonymously by the editors of the journal Crazyhorse, and the competition will be judged jointly by Jeffrey Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press together with Carol Ann Davis, Editor of the esteemed literary journal Crazyhorse. Any poet writing in English who has not previously published a full-length book is eligible.

Terms:

An entry fee of $25 must accompany each submission, made payable to Tupelo Press, Inc. A stamped self-addressed postcard may be included to confirm receipt of manuscript. Simultaneous submissions are permitted so long as accompanied by separate entry fee.

Alternate Means of Payment

Tupelo Press now accepts Paypal for reading fees.

When making a payment through Paypal, please include the author's name in the box labeled "Manuscript Author's Name" at the bottom of the "Review Your Payment" page. Before mailing your manuscript to Tupelo, please also write the date and amount of your Paypal payment on the cover sheet so that we can match your payment to the proper manuscript. Thank you.

Notify Tupelo Press if manuscript is accepted elsewhere. Tupelo Press will consider all finalists for publication. Individual poems, chapters or excerpts may have been published previously in magazines, anthologies or chapbooks of no more than 48 pages, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Translations and previously self-published books are not eligible.

Please download and attach the optional Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse PDF permission form to your manuscript when you submit it (you will need Adobe Acrobat to open it). You may choose whether to allow your manuscript to be studied (anonymously) by students in the Crazyhorse/Tupelo Press Publishing Institute. A decision to decline permitting the use of your manuscript by the Publishing Institute will have NO effect on the manuscript's standing in the contest, nor will it affect the editors' consideration for publishing individual poems in Crazyhorse.

Notification:

Enclose SASE for notification of winner. Do not enclose SASE for return of manuscript; all manuscripts will be recycled at the conclusion of the competition, except for those under consideration for future publication. No FedEx or UPS.

Entry must be postmarked between January 1 and April 15, 2008.

Mail Manuscript and Entry Fee to:
Tupelo Press 9^th Annual Poetry Contest
P.O. Box 539
Dorset, VT 05251

Tupelo Press is a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Contest Procedures and Ethical Considerations:

How We Judge Contests:

To be certain that each and every manuscript submitted receives the fairest and most thoughtful consideration, all manuscripts are read and considered anonymously. When a manuscript is received, all identifying material, acknowledgment pages and bios are removed and filed for reference at the conclusion of the competition. The manuscripts will be read by the editorial staff of the journal Crazyhorse (Carol Ann Davis and Garrett Doherty), who will narrow the field to 50 semifinalists, which are then "ranked." Generally, the top 10-25 manuscripts become finalists. Jeffrey Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press, and Carol Ann Davis, Editor of Crazyhorse, will select the winning manuscript from among those finalists. After a winner has been announced, all decisions about which additional manuscripts are to be published, if any, are made, ultimately, by the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with other editors. This year, the readers are the editors of Crazyhorse: Carol Ann Davis and Garrett Doherty. Tupelo Press does not use students or interns as readers at any stage of its competitions.

Tupelo Press is thoroughly committed to safeguarding the integrity of our contests. You should not enter this year's contest if you have studied with, or have a personal relationship or have worked on your manuscript with Carol Ann Davis, Garrett Doherty, or Jeffrey Levine. Similarly, no member of the panel may consider any manuscript where they have a personal relationship with the poet, where they have taken any part in shaping the manuscript, or where—for whatever reason—selecting a particular manuscript might be considered improper.

Additional Considerations:

Before you submit a manuscript to a Tupelo Press competition, please read the work of the poets that we publish. We publish work that encompasses a wide range of approaches (from formal to experimental). Tupelo Press has published books by poets working in academe, and books by poets completely outside the academic world. We have published books whose language is direct and highly "accessible," books that are experimental and abstract, and books that lie somewhere between those two poles. But all of the books we publish demonstrate a vivid and musical use of language, a willingness to take risks, a finely honed technique, an abundance of imagination, and the ability to convey something important.

Tupelo Press is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

CLMP Contest Code of Ethics

CLMP's community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to

1. Conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;

2. To provide clear and specific contest guidelines-defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and

3. To make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically.

We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.