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Guidelines

This competition is open to any poet writing in English. Previously published poems with proper acknowledgment are acceptable. Translations and previously self-published books are not eligible. Employees of Tupelo Press, Inc. are not eligible.

Poets should submit 20 to 30 pages (no more than one poem per page) plus SASE and $20 reading fee. Manuscripts should be on good quality white paper, paginated consecutively, with a table of contents and acknowledgments and bound with a clip. Include two cover pages, one with only the title of the manuscript and a second with your name, address, telephone numbers, email address, and title of the manuscript. Your name must not appear elsewhere on the manuscript. Please retain a copy for your records.

No UPS or FedEx. May include SAS postcard for confirmation of your submission and SASE for notification of winner. Manuscripts will not be returned. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted, but Tupelo Press must be notified immediately if manuscript is accepted elsewhere.


Mail manuscript and entry fee to:
Tupelo Press Snowbound Series
P.O. Box 539
Dorset, VT 05251


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 submitted to readers and judges 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 are then sent to readers, who are instructed to "grade" each manuscript on a scale of 1-5, and to make notes and recommendations on each of the "5" and "high 4" manuscripts. All of the "5" and "high 4" manuscripts are then returned for further consideration by the editors of Tupelo Press. That process, too, is anonymous. In a given competition, we often find about 100 manuscripts in the "high 4" to "5" category.

The editors then narrow the field to 50 semifinalists, which are then "ranked." Generally, the top 25 manuscripts become finalists. Those finalists—with absolutely no notes or rankings—are then given to the judge, who may or may not ask to see additional manuscripts. If a judge requests additional manuscripts, the editors will send the judge some or all of the semifinalists depending upon how many additional manuscripts the judge requests. After a winner has been announced, all decisions about which additional manuscripts are to be published are made, ultimately, by the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with other editors. Tupelo Press uses new readers each year. All readers are nationally recognized poets trusted and respected by Tupelo Press. 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 with the judge, or if the judge has helped shape your manuscript in any manner. Similarly, judges are instructed to set aside any manuscript where they recognize the work, 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 have the appearance of impropriety. In our experience, our judges have been as deeply concerned about these ethical considerations as are we. Further, Tupelo Press is committed to selecting judges who represent different geographical regions and aesthetics, in an effort to assure the fairness of our contests.

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.