Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines for the Open Press Poetry Prize

 The Open Poetry Prize is open to all poets who can comply with the following guidelines.

1. The Open Poetry Prize is open to all poets who are in possession of a manuscript, a name, an email address, a phone number, and a check for thirty dollars. Please be sure you meet these requirements before submitting to our contest.

2. Open will consider all manuscripts that are in a single font, are single-spaced, and that contain no more than seventy pages.  All manuscripts must be received by April 15. 

3. Open will not make exceptions or accept excuses from your mother, your professor, or God.

4. Open will consider all manuscripts that mention in their cover letter how much they love Open Press and its poets.  

5. Open will consider all manuscripts that mention in their cover letter which Open Press books they have read, why they love them, which they plan to review, and why they want to become one of them.

6. Open will consider all manuscripts that mention in their cover letters how many readings they can secure for other Open authors and how many friends they have on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets.

7. Open will consider all manuscripts with open eyes and minds.  If you wish that they be closed, please choose another publisher.

8.  Open will consider all manuscripts including manuscripts written by themselves, their professors, their students, and their relatives.

9. Open will not consider any manuscript that is lost.

10. Open will not consider any epics, manifestos, or epic manifestos.

11. Open will not read multiple manuscripts by the same author. Nor will we read the same manuscript with a multiple titles and multiple arrangements of its poems.

12. Open will not respond to bribery, blackmail or suicide threats.  If you are a criminal or have suicidal impulses, please do not submit a manuscript to Open.

13. Open does not wish to know which famous poets you know, have studied with and/or have slept with.  Please do not inform us of these details.

14. Open does not want to go out to dinner with you right now.

15. Open does not care what you are wearing.  Please do not include photos with your entry.

16. Open will not comment on rejected manuscripts and owes you no explanation for its editorial decisions.  

Also please do not do any of the following: 

17. Please do not use Elmer’s glue to stick the pages of your manuscript together.

18. Please do not include glitter or stickers in your envelope.

19. Please do not enter the contest if you don’t want to publish your manuscript,  or if you think you might be sued for libel if the manuscript is published.

20. Please do not enter the contest if you would rather have another press publish your manuscript.

21. Please do not enter the contest if you expect Open to wait all summer for you hear from a preferred publisher.

22. Please do not enter the contest if you plan to continue shopping the manuscript around after it has been accepted, and then to make up an elaborate excuse, should another publisher snatch it up.

23. Please do not enter the contest if you are not an honest person. 

24. Please do not enter the contest if you are psychotic, vindictive, or harbor ill will towards fellow poets.

25. Please do not enter this contest if you think you are the only real poet living today.

26. Please do not enter the contest if you have never read a book of poems. 

27. Please do not enter the contest if you think you are the next Rod McKuen or Mary Oliver.

28. Please do not enter this contest if you post glamorous photographs of yourself every day on Facebook.

29. Please do not enter the contest if you do not brush your teeth. And floss.

30. Please do not enter the contest post mortem.

Thank you for your interest in the Open Poetry Prize.

If we select your manuscript, we will allow revisions, but please do not send us an entirely new book and call it a revision.

We pledge to choose at least one manuscript to publish.  We hope your manuscript is the one we choose.  While we do not care if we know you or do not know you, we do hope you are not a bot.

(Many thanks to David and Stacey for publishing this on BAP: http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2014/03/submission-guidelines-for-open-press-poetry-prize.html)