The Akron Poetry Prize is an annual contest held by The University of Akron Press

University of Akron Press

The University of Akron Press is a non-profit university press that is a part of the University of Akron. Founded in 1988, the Press is currently directed by Thomas Bacher and is a member of Association of American University Presses....

. The competition is open to all poets writing in English. The winning poet receives an $1,000 honorarium and publication of his or her book in the Akron Series in Poetry

Akron Series in Poetry

The Akron Series in Poetry, published by The University of Akron Press was founded "to bring to the public writers who speak in original and compelling voices". In addition to publishing three collections of poetry every year, The Akron Series in Poetry also sponsors the annual Akron Poetry Prize...

. The final selection is made by a nationally prominent poet. The final judge for 2012 is Dara Wier

Dara Wier

Dara Wier is an American poet and the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently SELECTED POEMS from Wave Books. Awards include the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from the American Poetry Review, Pushcart Prize, San Francisco Poetry Center Prize. Her work is in Best American Poetry...

. Other manuscripts may also be considered for publication by Series Editor Mary Biddinger

Mary Biddinger

Mary Biddinger is an American poet, editor, and academic.Mary Biddinger is the author of the poetry collection Prairie Fever...

. Past editor's choice selections have included books by John Gallaher

John Gallaher

John Gallaher is an American poet and assistant professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, and co-editor of The Laurel Review, supported by Northwest's English Department. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Map of the Folded World...

, David Dodd Lee

David Dodd Lee

David Dodd Lee is an American poet. Lee is the author of six books of poems, Downsides of Fish Culture , Arrow Pointing North , Abrupt Rural , "The Nervous Filaments" "Orphan, Indiana" and "Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery...

, and Sarah Perrier.

Winners

2011: Emily Rosko, Prop Rockery, Judge: Natasha Sajé

Natasha Sajé

-Life:She grew up in New York City, and New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland, College Park.She teaches at Westminster College...

2010: Joshua Harmon, Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie, Judge: G.C. Waldrep

G.C. Waldrep

George Calvin Waldrep is an American poet and historian. -Biography:Waldrep earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees in History at Harvard University and Duke University, respectively, before receiving an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa.He was visiting professor at Kenyon...

2009: Oliver de la Paz

Oliver de la Paz

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Furious Lullaby , and he has a new collection forthcoming, Requiem for the Orchard , winner of the Akron Prize for Poetry...

, Requiem for the Orchard, Judge: Martín Espada

Martín Espada

Martín Espada is a Latino poet, and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. Puerto Rico has frequently been featured as a theme in his poems.- Life and career :Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York...

2008: Rachel Dilworth, The Wild Rose Asylum: Poems of the Magdalen Laundries of Ireland, Judge: Rita Dove

Rita Dove

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...

2007: Brian Brodeur, Other Latitudes, Judge: Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn is an American poet. Dunn has written fifteen collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, Different Hours and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dunn completed his B.A. in English at...

2006: Alison Pelegrin, Big Muddy River of Stars, Judge: B. H. Fairchild

B. H. Fairchild

B.H. Fairchild is an award-winning American poet and former college professor. His most recent book is Usher , and his poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Poetry, TriQuarterly, The Hudson Review, Salmagundi, The...

2005: Ashley Capps, Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields, Judge: Gerald Stern

Gerald Stern

Gerald Stern is an American poet. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of Lucky Life, which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection, and of a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He has subsequently been given many prestigious awards for his...

2004: Vern Rutsala

Vern Rutsala

Vern Rutsala is an American poet, born in McCall, Idaho, in 1934. He was educated at Reed College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop . He taught English and creative writing at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon for more than forty years, before retiring in 2004...

, How We Spent Our Time

2003: Sharmila Voorakkara, Fire Wheel

2002: Roger Mitchell, Delicate Bait, Judge: Charles Simic

Charles Simic

Dušan "Charles" Simić is a Serbian-American poet, and was co-Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. He was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.-Early years:...

2001: George Bilgere

George Bilgere

George Bilgere is an American poet.He grew up in Riverside, California, and earned his BA at the University of California, Riverside. He received his MA in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and earned a Ph.D...

, The Good Kiss

2000: John Minczeski, Circle Routes, Judge: Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times described her as "far and away, this country's [America's] best-selling poet".-Early life:...

1999: Dennis Hinrichsen, Detail from the Garden of Earthly Delights, Judge: Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...

1998: Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Never Be the Horse, Judge: Thomas Lux

Thomas Lux

-Biography:Thomas Lux was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, son of a milkman and a Sears & Roebuck switchboard operator, neither of whom graduated from high school. Lux was raised in Massachusetts on a dairy farm. He was, according to those who knew him in high school, very good at baseball,...

1997: Jeanne E. Clark, Ohio Blue Tips, Judge: Alice Fulton

Alice Fulton

Alice Fulton is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.- Biography :Fulton was born and raised in Troy, New York, the youngest of three daughters. Her father was the proprietor of the historic Phoenix Hotel, and her mother was a visiting nurse. She began writing poetry in high school...

1996: Clare Rossini, Winter Morning with Crow, Judge: Donald Justice

Donald Justice

Donald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his...

1995: Susan Yuzna

Susan Yuzna

-Life:She has a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana.She has been resident at several artist colonies, including Yaddo, and MacDowell....

, Her Slender Dress, Judge: Charles Wright

Charles Wright

Charles Wright may refer to:*Charles Wright , American botanist*Charles Frederick Wright , U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania*Charles Wright , Nottinghamshire and England cricketer*C. S...

External links

• University of Akron Press
• Akron Series in Poetry
• Akron Poetry Prize Submission Guidelines
• University of Akron