In If the House, published in October by the University of Wisconsin Press, Molly Spencer makes clear how a home and its environs can serve as rich ground to explore the inner lives and intimacies of the people who dwell there. These poems give readers a chance to consider how our own lives have been molded by where we’ve planted ourselves and who or what surrounds us. 

The editors of the Beloit Poetry Journal are pleased to accept entries for 2020 Chad Walsh Chapbook Series. The series was established in 2017, with the support of the Alison W. Sackett Trust, in honor of former editor Chad Walsh. 

The poet whose manuscript is selected for the series will receive $1,000 and 50 copies of the chapbook. The winning chapbook will be distributed to every BPJ subscriber and sold separately, in a print run of approximately 1,500. Previous titles in the series include Jacques J. Rancourt's In the Time of PrEP and Christine Gosnay's The Wanderer.

We will remain open for submissions through November 30. For more details, see our guidelines.

The editors of the Beloit Poetry Journal are delighted to announce that final judge Patricia Smith has chosen Philip Metres’ “When It Rains in Gaza” as the winner of the 2019 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry. Philip Metres has written ten books, including Sand Opera (2015), The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance (2018), and the forthcoming Shrapnel Maps (2020). We’re grateful to the Adrienne Rich Literary Trust and to all who submitted poems for this year’s contest. Watch our website for details about the 2020 award.