TC Tolbert's chapbook The Quiet Practices, 2023 Chad Walsh Chapbook Series winner.
Open to any poet writing in English, regardless of publication history
$2500 prize, 50 author copies (perfect bound, full-color cover), and an in-depth editorial consultation
Winning chapbook distributed to every BPJ subscriber and sold separately (print run of approximately 1,500)
BPJ editors will read all submissions and select a manuscript for publication
Submissions open October 1–November 30 -- opening and closing at midnight Eastern Time
Results announced in late winter/spring
Selected manuscript published in spring/early summer
Guidelines
Submit (via Submittable) a manuscript of 20-35 pages of poetry (including the table of contents and acknowledgments page); each poem should begin on its own page.
Reading fee of $20 per entry. You may submit additional manuscripts by paying an additional reading fee for each. A limited number of fee-free entries are available to poets for whom the reading fee presents a hardship. (Email us at bpj@bpj.org for details.)
Submitters paying the $20 fee may purchase a 1-year subscription to the BPJ for only $15, nearly half off the regular subscription price. (An additional shipping charge applies to international subscribers.). The subscription will begin with the winning chapbook, published in spring/summer.
While individual poems may have appeared in periodicals, online, etc., the manuscript as a whole must be previously unpublished.
Include a table of contents; if applicable, include an acknowledgements page that lists where poems appeared previously.
We welcome simultaneous submissions; you may simply withdraw your manuscript (via Submittable) if it is accepted for publication elsewhere.
At this time we aren’t considering translations or multi-author chapbooks.
During the contest period, we can’t consider changes to manuscripts, though there will be time for editing before the selected chapbook is published.
We follow CLMP Guidelines for contests and are committed, in all we do, to the highest ethical standards. If you are a close personal friend, family member, student (outside of brief, one-off workshops), or if you have engaged the editing/consultation services of any BPJ editor, or if you are a former or current intern or staff member of the BPJ, please refrain from submitting. Email us at bpj@bpj.org if you have questions about eligibility.
