2010 poetry chapbook contest is CLOSED!




See Our Previous Winners





Send in Manuscript, $15 Reading Fee, Table of Contents, a list of previously published work, if any, and a SASE or e-mail address to Plan B Press PO Box 4067 Alexandria, VA 22303
Please make check out to "Steven Allen May", thank you!

Contest Rules
1) all manuscripts must be sent in paper form. No electronic submissions will be accepted for contest.
2) the manuscript must be between 28-32 pages long.
3) Do not display your name on the manuscript pages. This is a blind contest, so the judge will not see your name and can judge without bias. Your name should only appear on a cover sheet. 4) Manuscripts will NOT be returned. Send a SASE for a written response, otherwise we will e-mail. Manuscripts without a SASE or e-mail address will not receive a response.
5) Manuscripts must be in English, although there may be passages or words in other languages.
6) Any manuscripts without fees will not be considered.
7) You may submit more than one manuscript, but each must be accompanied by an additional reading fee.
8) Our judge does not read all submissions. We have a cache of readers who narrow down the field to a smaller group of semifinalists, which the judge reads. Our readers give comments/feedback. Please keep that in mind.
9) Winners of the contest will get a proof copy of the text of the book before it gets printed. With the exception of punctuation and spelling, the manuscript version that the judge picks (fiction or poetry) is the version we are publishing. YOU MAY NOT RE-EDIT YOUR BOOK!
10) We encourage the winner's feedback for the cover image. If author has no ideas on cover image, Plan B Press will offer options. Plan B Press reserves the right to not create or use an image that the author requests in order to retain editorial control. We will not buy rights for an artist's work.
11) Though available, ISBNs are not included in the contest.
12) We reserve the right not to reprint the book, but will consider a reprint if books sell out. A contract will be drawn up if a reprint is agreed upon by both parties.
13) The winner's book design is copyrighted by Plan B Press. The collection may not be reprinted in the same layout without Plan B Press's consent. Any cover imagery created by Plan B Press is also copyrighted by the publisher and may not be reprinted without permission.


About the Judge
The author of more than 625 poems published in over 1950 anthologies, books, and magazines such as Yankee, The Christian Science Monitor, Smartish Pace, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Nimrod, The Denver Quarterly, The Tampa Review, Poetry International, The Christian Century, and America, Barbara Crooker is the recipient of the 2007 Pen and Brush Poetry Prize, the 2006 Ekphrastic Poetry Award from Rosebud, the 2004 WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the 2004 Pennsylvania Center for the Book Poetry in Public Places Poster Competition, the 2003 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, the 2003 "April Is the Cruelest Month" Award from Poets & Writers, the 2000 New Millenium Writing's Y2K competition, the 1997 Karamu Poetry Award, and others, including three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, thirteen residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a prize from the NEA. A twenty-six time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Awards for her part in the audio version of the popular anthology, Grow Old Along With Me--The Best is Yet to Be (Papier Mache Press). She is the author of ten chapbooks, two of which won prizes in national competitions: Ordinary Life won the ByLine Chapbook competition in 2001 and Impressionism won the Grayson Books Chapbook competition in 2004. Radiance, her first full-length book, won the 2005 Word Press First Book competition, and was a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize. Line Dance, her second book, came out from Word Press in 2008, and recently won the 2009 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. Garrison Keillor has read seventeen of her poems on The Writer's Almanac, National Public Radio.