• with the support of the Adrienne Rich Literary Trust
• $1,500 prize for a single poem
• Judge: Ellen Bass
• Submissions Open March 1 - April 30

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Guidelines

• Submit 1-3 unpublished poems on any subject in any style up to a maximum of 10 pages per entry. (We enjoy long poems!)
• Reading fee of $15 per entry. A limited number of complimentary entries are available to poets for whom the fee presents a hardship. Contact us at bpj@bpj.org for more information.
• Submitters paying the reading fee may purchase a discounted 1-year subscription to the BPJ. (An additional shipping charge applies to international subscribers.)
• Simultaneous submissions welcome. Please notify us immediately of publication elsewhere by leaving a message in Submittable.
• We regret we that cannot accept entries after the deadline or changes to poems after submission.
• Please no translations (though we are happy to see these during our regular reading periods).
• Kindly refrain from placing your name anywhere on the attached manuscript.
• The editors will consider all submissions for publication.
• Finalists will be notified by June 30; the winner will be announced and published in the Fall issue of the BPJ.
• We follow the CLMP Guidelines for contests and are committed, in all we do, to the highest ethical standards. If you are a personal friend, family member, or student of any BPJ editor or of the judge, or if you are a former or current intern or staff member of the BPJ, please refrain from submitting.
  

“…every poem breaks a silence that had to be overcome…”
—Adrienne Rich