www.springgardenpress.com/contests.html

Spring Garden Press and The Greensboro Review invite submissions for the Robert Watson Poetry Award chapbook competition. Submission must be received between 1 October and 2 April. The winning manuscript will be announced in September 2008 and will be awarded with the publication of a beautifully designed, letterpress-printed, limited-edition chapbook. The edition is limited to 500 copies, fifty of which are reserved for the author and the remainder of which will be offered for sale through Spring Garden Press. The winning poet will also receive a cash award of $500 as well as an invitation from the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to read in their 2008-2009 Distinguished Visiting Writers Series.

Submission guidelines

Please submit a collection of poems not exceeding 24 pages including title page, dedications, table of contents, and acknowledgments. The cover page should contain, on a single detachable page, the manuscript title, author’s name, address, phone number, and email address. The author’s name should not appear anywhere else. A second title page should be provided without the author’s name or other identification. Please provide a table of contents and a separate acknowledgments page containing prior magazine or anthology publication of individual poems. Manuscripts should be bound with a simple spring clip.

NOTE: Poems may have appeared in journals or anthologies but not as part of a book-length collection.

There is a $10 entry fee for online submissions, $12 if you submit by post.

All entrants receive a 1-year subscription to The Greensboro Review or, if they are already subscribers, a 1-year subscription extension.

Submitting online

To enter the contest electronically, use the Spring Garden Press Submission Manager .

Submitting by post

Please send your manuscript and a $12 check payable to Spring Garden Press to:

Spring Garden Press
5603B West Friendly Avenue
Suite 283
Greensboro, NC 27410

Also include a #10 SASE for notification of the winner. Manuscripts must be postmarked between 1 October 2007 and 2 April 2008; those postmarked before or after will be discarded. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Small print

For the 2008 competition, several groups of writers may NOT enter. These include former editors and staff of The Greensboro Review; friends, former professors, and family of current Greensboro Review editors and staff.

Contest manuscripts are screened by the editors of Spring Garden Press as well as qualified readers appointed by the Press. The final selection is made by a poet of distinguished achievement, who remains anonymous until the winner is announced in October.

Spring Garden Press subscribes to the principles laid out in the Contest Code of Ethics adopted by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP):

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.

For more information:

Spring Garden Press · 5603 B West Friendly Avenue · Suite 283 · Greensboro, North Carolina 27410-4252