The submission period for the Backwaters Press yearly poetry prize is now open, and ends May 1. Guidelines for the prize series can be found here. The judge for the 2024 contest is Tomás Q. Morín. Morín is the author of the poetry collections Machete, A Larger Country, and Patient Zero. He is also the author of Where Are You From (Nebraska, 2024) and the memoir Let Me Count the Ways (Nebraska, 2022).

The Backwaters Prize in Poetry, an international poetry book competition initiated by the Backwaters Press in 1998, has produced award-winning books by some of America’s finest authors. Building upon an impressive backlist in poetry and prose that contributes to the cultural landscape of our state and region, one poetry manuscript is selected each year by a committee of preliminary judges and one final judge for inclusion in this series. The selected volume is published by the University of Nebraska Press.

The 2023 Backwaters Prize winner was Julie Choffel of Connecticut. Her winning collection, Dear Wallace, will be published this fall.