Walt Whitman Award

The Academy of American Poets' Walt Whitman Award, given since 1975, is the richest first-book path in the country: $5,000, publication by a major trade or independent press (recently Graywolf), a paid residency, and — the real prize — purchase and distribution of thousands of copies to Academy members, guaranteeing a first book an audience it could never earn at retail.

Judged by a single acclaimed poet each year, it has launched careers from Suji Kwock Kim to threa almontaser. Manuscripts are read in the fall with a modest entry fee. For an unpublished poet with a finished manuscript, this is the deadline that matters.