The Kenyon Review, in partnership with Salt Publishing, UK, and the award-winning Earthworks Book Series, announces a competition for a first or second collection of poems by an Indigenous writer. The winning volume will be published by Salt, and the winning poet will give a reading at Kenyon College and receive a $1,000 honorarium.

2012 Guidelines

Poets who have published no more than one book of poems are eligible to enter.

Submissions will be only accepted during the month of August, 2012.

Only electronic manuscripts are admissible. No printed paper entries will be accepted. Electronic manuscripts must be typed, paginated (and with pages numbered), and 50–70 pages in length (single spaced). Manuscripts must be submitted via the Submittable portal. The first page of the submission must be a brief biographical note, which includes a statement of tribal affiliation and/or Indigenous ancestry.  Please return to this page in August to access the submissions portal.

Individual poems from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Translations and self-published books are not eligible. The work must be by a single author.

Manuscripts must include a table of contents and a list of acknowledgments for poems previously published. The first page of the submission must be a brief biographical note, which includes a statement of tribal affiliation and/or Indigenous ancestry. (The competition is intended to foster the publication and promotion of writing by Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Chamorro, Maori, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander poets. Other poets who identify as Indigenous are welcome to query the contest director concerning their eligibility atearthworks@kenyon.edu).

Your name, address, phone number and email address should appear on the title page of your manuscript. Your name should not appear within the manuscript itself.

No alterations to the manuscript will be accepted after submission. No correspondence can be entered into for entries once they are made. Queries prior to the submission deadline may be addressed toearthworks@kenyon.edu.

No illustrations, photographs or images should be included.

Contest decisions will be made in early 2013.  The winning manuscript will be published in 2013.

The winning poet will be invited to give a reading at Kenyon College, for which he or she will receive a $1000 honorarium.