Guidelines for Omnidawn Poetry Book and Chapbook Contests



The winner of each of Omnidawn’s poetry book and chapbook contests wins a cash prize ($3,000 for the 1st/2nd Book and Open Contest, $1,000 for the Chapbook Contest), publication of the book by Omnidawn with a full color cover (unless the author prefers black and white), 20 free copies of the winning book, and extensive publicity through our newsletters and social media channels. Our winning books are highly regarded in the book publishing and academic worlds. Winning books have been reviewed in major print publications including Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorado Review, and more. Our poetry prize winners have gone on to win the California Book Award in poetry, American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, finalists for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, PEN America Jean Stein Award, and one winner of Kate Tufts Discovery Award.


All four Omnidawn poetry competitions have very similar guidelines and submission procedures. The guidelines and requirements that are the same for all contests are as follows:

  1. Omnidawn poetry editors seek a wide range of styles, approaches, forms, diversities, and aesthetics to send to the judge (for example: lyric, prose poems, experimental, etc.)

  2. There are no citizenship requirements or limitations. Online submissions are accepted from around the world. (Omnidawn can no longer accept postal submissions).

  3. Manuscripts must be in English, although it is perfectly acceptable to include some text in other languages.

  4. Manuscript submissions for all contests must be original. (If you include quotes from other works in your manuscript, please be sure they are clearly attributed to the author either on the same page or in a “Notes” section at the back of the manuscript.)

  5. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished, although individual poems in a manuscript are still eligible for this contest if they have been previously published in print or web magazines, journals, anthologies, or on a personal website. For the Single Poem Contest, the poems cannot have been previously published.

  6. Simultaneous submissions to other contests and multiple submissions to this or other Omnidawn contests are perfectly acceptable. Please notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

  7. If you are submitting a poetry manuscript that includes photographs or other graphic images, they must be completely original and you must state that on the first page of the manuscript, or your manuscript will be removed from the contest. We cannot accept collages since they pose copyright issues. If you include any collages in your manuscript, it will be removed from the contest.

  8. All Omnidawn contests are Identity-Hidden (formerly referred to as a “blind contest”). Please do not include your name or identifying information anywhere in the manuscript.

  9. Revisions are not allowed to a manuscript after it has been submitted to the contest. However, the winning poet will have time to make minor revisions to the manuscript before publication if desired. We do reserve the right to get approval from the judge if those revisions are significant.

  10. Past or present “students,” “colleagues,” or “close friends” of the judge are NOT ELIGIBLE. For the purpose of this contest the following definitions apply: “Students” are defined as someone who has taken one or more semesters or quarter courses from the judge, but we do not consider someone who has taken only a weekend or week long workshop to be a “student” of the judge. “Colleagues” include someone who has worked with the judge, usually in the same department at a university or college, but someone who has worked in a different unrelated department at the same university or college and has had very little contact with the judge is not considered a “colleague.” A “close friend” is defined as someone who has met with the judge socially, for instance for a private dinner. Someone who knows the judge, but only meets and greets the judge at readings and other events is not considered a “close friend.” Once you have had a “student,” “colleague,” or “close friend” relationship with the judge, even if it was many years ago, you are ineligible for this contest.

  11. Omnidawn past and present staff and interns; authors of books Omnidawn has published, and winners of previous Omnidawn BOOK or CHAPBOOK contests are also ineligible. Winners of Omnidawn’s Single Poem Contest are still eligible to enter and win Omnidawn BOOK or CHAPBOOK contests.

  12. ALSO NOT ELIGIBLE are translations or collaborations by more than one author.

  13. We prefer that you do not include acknowledgements in your manuscript (although if your book is chosen as winner, you will be able to add these in). We will not disqualify your manuscript for including them, but editors and judges will disregard them in making their decisions.

  14. Acknowledgement pages and bios are unnecessary for an identity-hidden contest submission. If your manuscript wins the contest, the acknowledgements and a bio can be added before publication.

  15. It’s our policy to not make changes in a winning poem or manuscript before publication. We see it this way: the judge chooses the winner over all the other possible entries, and we want people who read the winning work to see what the judge chose, as it was. We do allow for minor copy edits and changes to front and back matter such as an acknowledgements, a bio, etc.

  16. This is not a hard rule: Omnidawn poetry editors tend to believe that introductions that explain a manuscript in any way detract from the overall impact of the poetry itself, so we tend to advise against manuscript introductions.  

Note: Ken Keegan was a co-founder of Omnidawn Publishing who sadly passed away in October of 2022 from cancer. He was determined to make sure that there were some submission slots for available in every contest for writers who could not afford the contest fees. In his honor, and because we all feel the same way about it he did, we’re carrying on this tradition. If you are in need of a fee waiver, please write to us at: 

free.entry@omnidawn.com