The University of Nebraska Press is happy to announce that Diane Seuss will be the judge for the 2026 Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry competition. 

Diane Seuss is the author of six books of poetry, including Modern Poetry (2024), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize; and frank: sonnets (2021), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Seuss was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and she is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her seventh collection, Althea: Poems, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2027.

Submissions will be accepted April 1 through May 1. The winner will receive $2,000 and publication of their book. For more information, click here.

The 2025 winner is HUMہم by Sanam Sheriff, which will be published in October 2026. The honorable mention is The Law at Night by Elizabeth Barnett, which will be published in the spring of 2027. Both were selected by Maggie Smith, the New York Times bestselling author of eight books of poetry and prose, including You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings.

Founded in 1997, the Backwaters Press has published award-winning books by some of America’s finest writers. The University of Nebraska Press acquired the Backwaters Press in 2018, with its impressive backlist in poetry and prose that contributes to the cultural landscape of our state and region. As a general interest imprint of UNP, the Backwaters Press continues to delight readers with creative literature of enduring value and consequence and an impressive backlist in poetry and prose that contributes to the cultural significance and preservation of diverse social groups and societies across the world.

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