The Catamaran Poetry Prize encourages the submission of previously  unpublished poetry manuscripts across a range of styles, themes, and forms. This contest is for a book length collection of poetry only. Manuscripts of fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, or screenplays are ineligible. The prize is only open to West Coast poets living in California, Washington, Oregon,  Alaska, and Hawaii. All submissions should be written in English. 

A  prize of $1,000 will and publication in book form will be awarded to poet for the winning poetry collection selected by the judge for publication.

All poets who have entered their manuscript in the contest will receive a complimentary, one-year subscription to our literary journal Catamaran. 

Submissions must be received between February 15, 2024 and June 15th, 2024 in order to be considered for publication. No late submissions will be accepted.

Manuscripts must be typed, paginated, and between 60-100 pages in length. Poems in the collection must be the original work of the author and previously unpublished in a book length collection. Poems can be published previously in print magazines or online journals. Publication acknowledgments should be included for previously published work. Please ensure all included quotations are clearly attributed to the author.

Simultaneous submissions and multiple submissions are acceptable. Please send us an email at editor@catamaranliteraryreader.com and let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. 

Submissions will be read blind, without identification of the author, so please remove your name from the title page and content of the manuscript itself. Because the reviews will be made blind, former students of the judge are not disqualified. Previous manuscript submissions to a prior contest are also not disqualified, and may be entered again.

Revisions are  not allowed to the manuscript after it has been submitted to the  contest. However, the winning poet will have time to revise the collection before publication. Catamaran reserves the right to get approval from the judge if revisions are significant.

If our staff encounters any difficulties in processing your submission we will contact you to obtain a correction. Minor errors in your submission (spelling, formatting, typographic errors) do not affect your chance of  winning.

The winner will be announced on the Catamaran website on Aug 1st, 2024, and we expect to publish the winning collection in Nov. 2024. We will also announce the names of finalists, and semifinalists by Aug 1st. We will send a Submittable notification of the manuscripts selected as winner and finalists by Aug 1st, 2024. Look for this notice at the email you use to enter the contest.

Reminder: this is a BLIND submission. Please remove your name from all pages of the manuscript, including from the title page. Manuscripts with identifying information will be "opened for editing" and not entered into the contest until the poet removes identifying information from all pages. Do not include names of people you would like to thank and acknowledge in your submission. These types of acknowledgements can be included and published with the winning manuscript.

Catamaran will host a book launch event and reading in Nov. 2024. The book will also be entered for publication awards. 

This year's judge is poet D.A. Powell. Powell earned an an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His first three collections of poetry,Tea, (1998), Lunch  (2000), andCocktails (2004), are considered by some to be a trilogy on the AIDS epidemic. Lunch was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, and Cocktails was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His next two books were Chronic (2009), which won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (2012) won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Powell is also the author of Repast (2014). Powell has taught at Harvard University, Columbia University, and the University of San Francisco. He has been awarded the Lyric Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Paul Engle Fellowship from the James Michener Foundation.