Chapbook Competitions

2012 Chapbook Competitions for Ohio Poets

Poets currently residing in Ohio may enter the Open Competition. Poets currently enrolled in Ohio institutions of higher education may enter the Student Competition. In the spring two manuscripts will be selected for publication in the Wick Chapbook Series, published by the Kent State University Press. The winners will also give a reading at Kent State University. Catherine Wing is the judge and general editor of the series.

Congratulations to the 2010 Ohio Chapbook competition winners: Lisa Ampleman, author of I’ve Been Collecting This to Tell You, and Heather Kirn, author of The Story You Tell Yourself. The 2011 winners will be announced in the spring of 2012.

Entry Requirements

• Poets may enter only one of the competitions. There is a $18 reading fee for each manuscript sent to the Open Competition. A check or money order should be made payable to the Wick Poetry Center. There is no reading fee for the Student Competition. Manuscripts must include 15 to 25 pages of poetry, typed on one side only, with no more than one poem per page. Only clean, legible copies are accepted.
• Two title pages should be included. The first must list the poet's name, address, email, and phone number as well as the title of the manuscript and the name of the contest to which the manuscript is being submitted (either Open Competition or Student Competition). Poets entering the Student Competition should indicate the name of the school in which they are enrolled. The second title page should include only the title of the manuscript. The poet's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Entries are judged anonymously.
• The manuscript as a whole must not have been published previously, but it may contain poems that have been published individually; these should be listed, with publisher, on a separate acknowledgments page. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the poet must obtain permission from previous publishers.
• The manuscript may be submitted simultaneously to other publishers, but poets must notify the Wick Poetry Center immediately if the manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• All manuscripts will be recycled after judging. For notice that the manuscript has been received, poets should enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard; for notice of the final winning selections, poets should enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Winners will be announced in the spring.
• Manuscripts must be postmarked between August 31 and October 31, 2012. No late entries will be considered.

Send submissions to: