Philip Levine Prize for Poetry

Author photo by Bao Phi

Douglas Kearney has published seven collections, including Optic Subwoof (2022), the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize-winning Sho (2021), and Buck Studies (2016), winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, the CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry, and California Book Award silver medalist (Poetry).

M. NourbeSe Philip calls Kearney’s collection of libretti, Someone Took They Tongues (2016), “a seismic, polyphonic mash-up.” Kearney’s Mess and Mess and (2015), was a Small Press Distribution Handpicked Selection that Publisher’s Weekly called “an extraordinary book.” WIRE magazine calls Fodder (2021), a live album featuring Kearney and frequent collaborator, Val-Inc., “Brilliant.”

Kearney is the 2021 recipient of OPERA America’s Campbell Opera Librettist Prize, created and generously funded by librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell. His operas include Sucktion, Mordake, Crescent City, Sweet Land (the Music Critics of North America’s Best Opera of 2021), and Comet / Poppea commissioned by AMOC (American Modern Opera Company). He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Altadena, California, Kearney teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and lives in St. Paul with his family.

The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry seeks previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscripts and is open to any poet writing in English.

• Individual poems in a contest manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks, but the work as a whole must be unpublished.
• Translations are ineligible for this prize, as well as previously self-published books.
• Current and former faculty and students of California State University, Fresno are ineligible.
• Close friends and family members of the final judge are also ineligible.

Before submitting, please carefully review the guidelines below to ensure that your manuscript is formatted correctly. Double-check your work. Address any errors or mistakes before you submit your manuscript. We will not be able to assist in addressing or fixing errors that occur as a result of failure to review the guidelines. If you make a mistake, you are welcome to make a new submission and withdraw your old submission through Submittable, though you will be charged another $25 entry fee. At this time, we are unable to provide refunds. Please carefully review your manuscript before you submit it.

• Include a table of contents and number your pages.
• Manuscript should be 48-80 pages in length (not including title page, table of contents, etc.). Each poem should start on a new page.
• If needed, you may attach a ‘Notes’ page.
• Please do NOT include the following in your manuscript document: a cover letter; a dedication or thank-you page; an acknowledgements page; any biographical notes; your name or any identifying information.
• Within the document, please include a single title page with only the title of the manuscript so that your entry remains anonymous.
• Do NOT include your name or personal information in the file name or in the title of the manuscript.

Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted, as long as you notify Levine Prize staff promptly if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

We are no longer accepting hardcopy manuscripts.

All entries must be certified by Submittable (online) by September 30, 2023.

We are no longer accepting hardcopy manuscripts.

• An entry fee of $25 (U.S.) must accompany each online submission.
• Multiple submissions are accepted so long as a separate entry fee accompanies each submission.
• A limited number of fee waivers to cover the $25 submission fee may be made available on a case-by-case basis. For more information, please email the contest coordinator, Mai Der Vang: maidervang@mail.fresnostate.edu

Submit Your Manuscript

• Be sure that your document is complete and formatted correctly before uploading.
• Reminder: Do NOT include contact information in the body of your manuscript, in the file name, or in the title of the manuscript.
• Include a title page with manuscript title only and enter your contact information separately into Submittable so that the manuscript remains anonymous.

The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry endorses and abides by the Ethical Guidelines of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP):

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest.

To that end, we agree to:

• Conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;
• To provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and
• To make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public.

This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contest contributes to a vibrant literary heritage.

Submittable will provide automated notification of receipt. Please keep this for your records.

Results will be announced in early February 2024. We notify all entrants in two ways:

• via email;
• online via our MFA program’s website, social media, and elsewhere.

Mai Der Vang, contest coordinator:
maidervang@mail.fresnostate.edu

Levine Prize staff:
levineprize@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569