Slope Editions 21st Annual Book Prize

Judged by Rae Armantrout

Slope Editions is accepting full-length poetry manuscripts for its 21st Annual Slope Editions Book Prize. This year's contest will be judged by Rae Armantrout. The deadline is March 15th, 2026. The winning poet will have their book of poems published in 2027 by Slope Editions and will also receive $1000 and free copies of the book in lieu of royalties. The winner will be announced in the summer of 2026. Entries will be read blind. Please visit our website, slopeeditions.org, for further announcements and contest information. We especially encourage submissions from poets of color, women, and LGBTQ poets.

Describing the poems in Rae Armantrout’s latest book, Go Figure, Library Journal says, “she has honed enduring art on the ephemera that constitute a consciousness in motion through the present.” Armantrout’s 2018 book, Wobble, was a finalist for the National Book Award that year. In 2010 Versed won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and The National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, Conjunctions, Lana Turner, The Nation, The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, Harpers, The Paris Review, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology, and several editions of The Best American Poetry. Armantrout judged the Yale Younger Poets Prize from 2020-2025. She is Professor Emerita at UC San Diego. A new book, Safe Rooms, is scheduled to appear from Wesleyan in 2026.

Eligibility: Any poet living in the US and writing in English is eligible, unless that person has a close personal or professional relationship with the judge and/or Slope Editions staff or an affiliation with the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Past or current students of the judge are ineligible to enter; entry fees will be returned in these cases. Any manuscript that has appeared or is forthcoming as a printed book, e-book, or chapbook will NOT be considered. This means we will not accept manuscripts that contain a substantial amount of work previously published in a chapbook. Please do not include your name or any personal information anywhere on the manuscript. Manuscripts that are not blinded will not be read.

Electronic Submission Guidelines: 40 to 90 pages as formatted in standard 8 &1/2 by 11 MS Word or PDF document submitted through Submittable. Your name should not appear anywhere within your manuscript.

Entry Fee: $25 for electronic submissions, paid via Submittable 

Deadline: March 15th, 2026

Revisions: The winner may be able to revise his/her manuscript before publication. No revisions will be considered during the reading period.

Entrants to the Slope Editions Book Prize may also be considered for additional Slope Editions publications.  Entrants being considered for these publications will be notified. We offer sincere thanks to all entrants and readers for supporting Slope Editions and small press poetry.