Judge: Bhanu Kapil

Deadline Extended August 31, 2010

“I like to think of this contest as providing a potentially catalytic boost forward for the life of a writer…and as a beacon of possibility to new writers out there who struggle every day in the solitary practice of writing. We are over here saying “I know you can, I know you can.”
- Lisa Bowden,
Kore Press Co-Founder & Director

2010 Winners

Laura Newbern’s
Love and the Eye
selected by Claudia Rankine

Previous First Book Award Winners:
2009: Heather Cousins’
Something in the Potato Room
selected by Claudia Rankine

2008: Holly Iglesias’
Souvenirs of a Shrunken World
selected by Harryette Mullen

2007: Spring Ulmer’s
Benjamin’s Spectacles
selected by Sonia Sanchez

2006: Sandra Lim’s
Loveliest Grotesque
selected by Marilyn Chin

2005: Elline Lipkin’s
The Errant Thread
selected by Eavan Boland

the contest

A prize of $1,000 plus book publication by Kore Press will be given for a book-length poetry manuscript.

Deadline: August 31, 2010
This competition is open to any female writer who has not published a
full-length collection of poetry. Writers who have had chapbooks of
less than 42 pages printed in editions of no more than 400 copies are
eligible.

How to submit:
Submit your manuscript and $20 reading fee on-line here.

Comment box should include:
daytime and evening telephone numbers
where you heard about the contest.

Manuscripts must be:
anonymous (do not include your name anywhere on the manuscript)
original poetry written by applicant (translations are not eligible)

For more information email kore@korepress.org, or call 520-327-2127.

the judge

Bhanu Kapil is a British-Indian writer, and new U.S. citizen, who
lives now in Colorado, where she is core faculty at Naropa
University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She also
teaches writing at Goddard College in Vermont. She is the author of
four books: The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street
Press, 2001), Incubation: a Space for Monsters (Leon Works, 2006),
Humanimal: a Project for Future Children (Kelsey Street, 2009), and
Schizophrene (forthcoming from Nightboat Books, 2011.)

Special deal for contest entrants only!

For $39, your manuscript will be entered into the contest and you
will receive one copy each of the two latest First Book Award
winners. For $45, you will be entered and will receive one copy each
of the three latest First Book Award winners. Please e-mail kore@korepress.org to take advantage of this deal!