May Swenson

       May Swenson, 1965.
       Photo copyright L.H. Clark.

      ed field

      Mark Doty
      Judge for 2014


The May Swenson
Poetry Award


This annual competition, named for May Swenson, honors her as one of America's most provocative and vital writers. In John Hollander's words, she was "one of our few unquestionably major poets." During her long career, May was loved and praised by writers from virtually every school of American poetry.


Judge for the 17th Annual Swenson Award: Mark Doty


Mark Doty is the author of over a dozen books of poetry and prose, including Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2008 National Book Award for Poetry. His eight books of poems and four books of nonfiction prose have been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Whiting Writers Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers' Award and, in the United Kingdom, the T.S. Eliot Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Mark Doty is Distinguished Writer, Director of Writers House, and Professor of English at Rutgers University.


Swenson Award Guidelines


The winning manuscript will receive a cash prize of $1000, hardcover publication in the summer of 2013, plus royalties on sales of hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions.


All who enter will receive a complimentary copy of the winning book.


Please note, the Swenson Award is not limited to poets who have never previously published a book-length work; several of our winners have been first-book authors, but others have not.


To enter the competition, please follow these guidelines:


  • hard copy submissions only, no email submissions

  • your manuscript must be 50 to 100 pages

  • it must be your original poetry in English

  • no restrictions on form or subject

  • on a separate cover sheet, include your name, address, phone, and email address

  • September 30 postmark deadline

  • $25 reading fee

  • your manuscript will not be returned

  • the judge reserves the right to declare no winner

  • mail your submission to:

Swenson Poetry Award
3078 Old Main Hill
Utah State University Press
Logan UT 84322-3078
USA



Previous May Swenson Poetry Award Winners

2013
The Lame God
poems by M.B. McLatchey
foreword by Edward Field

2011
About the Dead
poems by Travis Mossotti
foreword by Garrison Keillor

2010
Zorba's Daughter
poems by Elisabeth Murawski
foreword by Grace Schulman

2009
Tomorrow's Living Room
poems by Jason Whitmarsh
foreword by Billy Collins

2008
Mrs. Ramsay's Knee
poems by Idris Anderson
foreword by Harold Bloom

2007
Neck of the World
poems by F. Daniel Rzicznek
foreword by Alice Quinn

2006
Haywire
poems by George Bilgere
foreword by Edward Field

2005
The Beautiful Lesson of the I
poems by Frances Brent
Foreword by Rachel Hadas

2004
Where She Always Was
poems by Frannie Lindsay
Foreword by J. D. McClatchy

2003
She Took Off Her Wings and Shoes
poems by Suzette Marie Bishop
Foreword by Alicia Ostriker

2002
The Owl Question
poems by Faith Shearin
Foreword by Mark Doty

2001
The Borgo of the Holy Ghost
poems by Stephen McLeod
Foreword by Richard Howard

2000
All That Divides Us
poems by Elinor Benedict
Foreword by Maxine Kumin

1999
Necessary Light
poems by Patricia Fargnoli
Foreword by Mary Oliver

1998
The Hammered Dulcimer
poems by Lisa Williams
Foreword by John Hollander

1997
Plato's Breath
poems by Randall R. Freisinger
Foreword by Herbert Leibowitz

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2013 FINALISTS

Doug Ramspeck Original Bodies
Kathy Davis Salt Underfoot
James Davis May American Irony
Athena Kildegaard Nocturne
Angela Sorby The Sleeve Ways
Sarah Sousa Church of Needles
LaWanda Walters No One Needs a Swimsuit at the Free Museum
Jonathan Fink The Crossing
Natania Rosenfeld Wild Domestic
Gaylord Brewer Countries of Ghost
Susan Roney-O'Brien Legacy of the Last World
Kate Kingston History of Grey
Amorak Huey Ha Ha Ha Thump
Rebecca Lauren Isle of Que
Kara Candito Spectator
Laura Lee Washburn The Book of Stolen Images
Jackleen Holton How Good Girls Go Bad
Philip White Among Other Things
Matthew Minicucci Calvary
Ronda Broatch Rib of New Fruit
Toni Thomas Bandits Come and Remove My Mother's Body in the Night

 


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