The 2021 Backwaters Prize in Poetry competition will be open April 1 through May 1. The winner will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize and the honorable mention will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize. Both winners will be awarded the publication of the book by the University of Nebraska Press under its imprint, Backwaters Press. The judge for this year’s contest is Poet Laureate of Kansas, Huascar Medina.

The 2020 winning collection Long Rules: An Essay in Verse by Nathaniel Perry will be published this fall.

For more details, please visit the Backwaters Prize page.