Colorado Prize for Poetry
ABOUT
The Colorado Prize for Poetry is an annual book manuscript contest established in 1995 and run by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, publisher of Colorado Review. It has become one of the longer-running university-affiliated poetry prizes, with a judge roster over three decades that includes Charles Wright, Jorie Graham, Mark Strand, Fanny Howe, Cole Swensen, Forrest Gander, and Victoria Chang, who selected the 2026 winner. Past winning collections have come from poets such as Dean Young, Bruce Beasley, G.C. Waldrep, Rusty Morrison, and Gale Marie Thompson, and the prize is generally regarded as attentive to formally adventurous, image-driven work rather than narrative or formalist verse, though guidelines state theme and style are open.
Entrants submit a book-length manuscript of 48–100 pages, either by mail or via Submittable, with a postmark/upload deadline in mid-January following an October 1 open date (grace period of five days). The entry fee is $25 by mail or $28 online (the extra $3 covers Submittable's cut), and the fee includes a one-year subscription to Colorado Review; fee waivers exist for financial hardship but are capped and granted only once every three years. The winner receives a $2,500 honorarium (an advance against a 10% royalty once sales cover it) and publication in a 500-copy first printing distributed by University Press of Colorado, with results announced by May. The contest uses a two-tier judging system — six to eight anonymous preliminary readers each forward three to four manuscripts to the final judge, who cannot request specific manuscripts — and disqualifies entries that include the author's name or acknowledgments/publication credits anywhere in the file. CSU students, alumni, and employees, along with friends or former students of the final judge, are ineligible; the contest typically draws 700–800 entries per cycle, and foreign nationals on certain visa types (B1/B2, H-1B, F-1) are advised not to enter due to honorarium payment restrictions.