Broken River Prize

The Broken River Prize is an annual poetry chapbook contest from Platypus Press. Each year a different poet will judge the contest—2019’s judge is poet and teacher Airea D. Matthews.

You can now pre-order last year’s winner, Hijito (by Carlos Andrés Gómez). Selected by Eduardo C. Corral.

This year’s (2019) submission period is now closed.

Details

  • Runs between May 1st and July 31st, 2019.
  • Finalists and winner will be announced late 2019.
  • No submission fee.
  • Receive publication and $250/£200 prize money.
  • For books between 20 and 40 pages in length.
  • The contest is open internationally.
  • Finalists will be considered for publication.
  • Additional guidelines below.

Airea D. Matthews is the recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Her book, Simulacra, was selected by Carl Phillips in the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.

Guidelines

  • Please include a title page and acknowledgements section with your submission.
  • The manuscript does not need to be double-spaced unless intended to be reproduced that way.
  • You can include previously published poems; however, we would prefer that at least a third be unpublished.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions but will require all finalists to withdraw their manuscripts upon notification. Also, please let us know if a submission has been accepted elsewhere.
  • All work should be attached in a single .docx or PDF file, and your email must include a third-person bio.
  • Please do not submit manuscripts that contain images, artwork, and/or erasure or found poetry.
  • The winner will receive ten (10) copies of the published book as well as the $250 prize money.