POETRY & PROSE Contests

This fall, Quarterly West will open for its poetry and prose contests on October 1st. The winners will each receive $500 and publication in a forthcoming issue of Quarterly West. Runners-up in poetry and prose will each receive $200, and all entries will be considered for publication.

To enter, please submit up to three poems or a prose piece (i.e., fiction, non-fiction, or any hybridization therein) through our Submittable. The first full weekend of the contest (October 7th and 8th), there will be no fee to submit. After that point, submissions for BIPOC writers will remain free, and there will be a $5 submission fee for all other writers.

Poetry Contest submissions will remain open October 1st - November 1st.

Prose Contest submissions will open October 1st until we reach a cap of 500.

Poetry Contest submissions will open October 1st until we reach a cap of 600.

Please submit no more than one entry per genre. Multiple entries will go unread.

This year, the poetry judge is V. Penelope Pelizzon and the prose judge is Jamil Jan Kochai.

Transparency Statement

We believe in transparency, and feel strongly that submitters should know how our contests work. Because of this, we have outlined our contest process below: 

First, your submission is read and voted upon—without identifying submitter information—by at least two of our trusted readers. 

After our initial reading process, senior and associate genre editors (who will have access to identifying submitter information) review every submission, paying closest attention to submissions that have received at least one preliminary upvote. 

From there, our genre editors select finalists from the submission pool; all finalists receive an offer of publication. Submissions selected by editors as finalists then get passed along to the respective genre's contest judge: Jamil Jan Kochai (Prose) or V. Penelope Pelizzon (Poetry). Then, each judge will decide—without identifying submitter information—the winner and runner-up of each respective contest.

2023 Contest Winners & Finalists

We are delighted to announce the winners, runners-up, and finalists for our fourth annual contests in poetry and prose.

In prose, judge Thalia Field has selected “Witnesses” by Tobenna Nwosu as winner and “Revelations” by Mason Koa as runner-up. They will receive $500 and $200 respectively, and their stories will be featured in Issue 111 of Quarterly West.

Thalia Field on Tobenna Nwosu’s “Witnesses”:

“This is a mysterious and evocative piece that doesn’t neglect the poetic language of storytelling, and is satisfying in a very subtle and moving way. The world of the story is enchanting and dark, and moves between the layers of fantasy and reality. A wonderful and enjoyable read.”

Thalia Field on Mason Koa’s “Revelations”:

“This wonderful, tense, and complete short fiction uses dramatic tropes to circle a bit of a heartbreaking story that is also poignant and amusing. I liked how the author kept the mystery at the heart of the piece intact while also providing a satisfying shape.”

In poetry, judge Eduardo C. Corral has selected Tyler Wagner’s “Endless Savings” as winner and recipient of a $500 prize. Corral selected Mitchell Jacobs’ “Jesus Watches Me Get My Ass Swabbed” as runner-up and recipient of a $200 prize. Their poems will be featured in Issue 111 of Quarterly West.

Eduardo C. Corral on Tyler Wagner’s “Endless Savings”:

“This poem is deftly written. The lines cascade down the page, immersing the reader in loss, a shifting landscape (another kind of loss), and the speaker’s resolve, which takes a surprising turn at the end. The language is resonant, sorrowful: ‘The end, / an alternating / current’ and ‘Anything you/ could want. / Anything / to keep / you here.’ The poem takes a risk by conflating the seemingly endlessness of big box stores with endless human yearning. And it pays off memorably.”

Eduardo C. Corral on Mitchell Jacobs’ “Jesus Watches Me Get My Ass Swabbed”

“The speaker in this marvelous poem is under surveillance by multiple gazes. The surveillance is clinical, religious, and historical. The speaker disrupts the judgmental gazes by using humor and by reframing religious narratives. These strategies energize the language and shape a memorable speaker who both interrogates and rejects what is being experienced.”

We’d also like to congratulate all of our finalists for their inspiring work.

Prose Finalists:

Modupe Abidakun

Gabriella Navas

Claire Walla

Poetry Finalists:

O-Jeremiah Agbaakin

Carrie Chappell

Jessica Guzman

Dabin Jeong

Christopher Brean Murray

Tim Richardson

Natalie Tombasco

2022 Contest Winners & Finalists

We are delighted to announce the winners, runners-up, and finalists for our third annual contests in poetry and prose.

In prose, judge Amina Cain has selected “Fracas Street” by Theresa Sylvester as winner and “If You Can Never Love It Enough” by Hannah Ensor as runner-up. They will receive $500 and $200 respectively, and their stories will be featured in Issue 108 of Quarterly West. Additionally, Cain named “How To Catch Cherry Blossoms” by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu as Honorable Mention.

Amina Cain on Theresa Sylvester’s “Fracas Street”:

“I chose this story for its aura of unreality, its great sense of fullness within concision, its originality, and its vibrancy. The sisters of ‘Fracas Street’ are ghostly and intriguing as is the world they conjure between them.”

Amina Cain on Hannah Ensor’s “If You Can Never Love It Enough”:

“I chose this piece for its satisfying narrative voice and structure, its sense of expansiveness, not unlike the desert landscape in which it takes place, and its movement. ‘If You Can Never Love It Enough’ is witty and wise and I like the questions it asks about writing.”

Amina Cain on Ani Kayode Somtochukwu’s “How To Catch Cherry Blossoms”:

“I like the way in which ‘How to Catch Cherry Blossoms’ is both direct and dreamy. I was moved by it, caught up in its emotion and sensibility.”

In poetry, judge Sally Wen Mao has selected Hera Naguib’s “The Expulsion” as winner and recipient of a $500 prize. Wen Mao selected Alexa Luborsky’s “Slaughtering a Calf, I Think of Nothing But Myself” as runner-up and recipient of a $200 prize. Their poems will be featured in Issue 108 of Quarterly West.

Sally Wen Mao on Hera Naguib’s “The Expulsion”:

“‘The Expulsion’ is a poem that's hard to forget: a haunting, incantatory, and sonically lush portrait of a father who is ‘like the sea, an expatriate/that moves behooved despite/the country’s covert disposals.’ The language in this poem swells with sounds, full of reverberation and exilic ambivalence, reverence.”

Sally Wen Mao on Alexa Luborsky’s “Slaughtering a Calf, I Think of Nothing But Myself”

“‘Slaughtering a Calf’ is a sinuous and dexterously-made poem—a box full of ghosts, as text, metatext, subtext. Captivating, elegiac, and intricate, this poem cascades through its many forms and layers.”

We’d also like to congratulate all of our finalists for their inspiring work.

Prose Finalists:

Candace Hartsuyker

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Ann Keeling

Max Kruger-Dull

Kimberly Ramos

Mariah Rigg

Heather Whited

Poetry Finalists:

Faiz Ahmad

Austin Araujo

Katie DeLay

Mackenzie Schubert Polonyi Donnelly

Rosa Lane

Christina Tang-Bernas

Anna Tomlinson

Maria Zoccola

2021 Contest Winners & Finalists

Poetry, selected by Douglas Kearney

Winner: Onyekachi Iloh’s “It Is Once Again The Season of Corn”

Runner-up: Nora Claire Miller’s “In the Far Present”

Finalists:

Ryan Bollenbach 

Sarah Elkins 

Sarah Ghazal Ali 

Mrinalini Harchandrai 

Suzanne Langlois

O. Neace 

Julie Marie Wade 

Prose, selected by Cristina Rivera Garza

Winner: Su-Yee Lin’s “Some Humanity Still”

Runner-up: Shih-Li Kow’s “Old Enough For This”

Finalists:

Lindsey Clark

Enzo Kohara Franca 

Daniel Garcia 

Brandon Hansen

Dani Putney

Colleen Rothman

2020 Contest Winners & Finalists

Poetry, selected by Natalie Scenters-Zapico

Winner: Kanika Ahuja’s “What Comes From Nothing”

Runner-up: Erika Goodrich’s “Not Even God’s Mercy”

Finalists:

Megan Alyse 

Gustavo Barahona-López

Jacquelyn Bengfort

C.S. Carrier

Rebecca Foust

torrin a. greathouse

Willie Lin 

Aaron Magloire 

Nome Emeka Patrick

Nnadi Samuel 

Callie Smith

Prose, selected by Peter Markus

Winner: Jakob Konger’s "One Long Sentence"

Runner-up: Nath Oddson’s “Log of Man Moths”

Finalists:

Linette Marie Allen

Thomas Dai

Taylor McGill

Kara McMullen

Corbin Muck

Chapbook COntest

Every spring, Quarterly West runs an open-genre chapbook contest. Send us poetry, short-fiction, non-fiction, or any combination or hybridization therein. No restrictions as to subject matter or form apply, although we urge you to look at our About Us statement for the type of writing that we favor. Please keep your submission to 18-52 pp.

The winning writer receives $1000, publication, and 25 copies. Quarterly West publishes a runner-up as well. All published authors will receive 25 copies of their chapbook. As judging is anonymous, any manuscripts with identifying marks (including an acknowledgments section) will be discarded.

The 2025 Chapbook Contest will be open for submissions from March 15 to April 15. We look forward to reading your manuscripts.

2023 Chapbook Winners, Finalists, & Honorable Mentions

Quarterly West is delighted to announce the winners and finalists of our 2023 chapbook contest. Jess Arndt has selected Carolyn Guinzio’s collection Meanwhile in Arkansas as winner, Rachele Salvini’s Oklahoma Bestiary as runner-up, and Ann Pedone’s Hotel Sappho as an honorable mention. Both Carolyn Guinzio and Rachele Salvini have received offers of publication.

Praise for Meanwhile in Arkansas

“I love this more ardently with every reading. Both a long poem and a series of semitransparent links or deft bends, “we bite sometimes not/ knowing what we bite” marks the feeling and flavor of Meanwhile in Arkansas--everywhere showing its sly, earned wise-ness (minus any of wisdom’s hubris) in these courageously outlier poems. Here place or locality (spring-fed, greasy) is entirely something else. Instead, via the gift of the poems’ repeating titular pulse, an undercurrent, an eddy, a passing suggestion or shadow might snag us into back into our vital and fugitive subselves, the relief of our overlooked regions. Suggests Carolyn Guinzio, who, near as a neck tattoo, guides new syntax into our reshaping ears:

we are made differently

here differently now Meanwhile

in Arkansas

What’s hereness? What does it mean to be held meanwhile? What does Arkansas matter? Except, in a world entombed by never-ending Amazon marketnonplaces, everything? Meanwhile in Arkansas is an antidote via unreliable narrator, an egg aisle, propane sun warmed, the possibility of margin-dwelling. You need me, it says, both unconcerned and re-suturing us to actual worlds. What’s tucked in, tucked away, is curative, creature-like, moving.”

—Jess Arndt, Contest Judge & author of Large Animals

Praise for Oklahoma Bestiary

“In these five crackling stories, bodies--both real and grief-imagined--come apart under the pulverizing pressures of small-town Oklahoman life. While violence-smeared and peopled by characters who are at best, inchoate, and at worst, architects of their own destruction, Oklahoma Bestiary’s inner panes feel lit with sensitivity, opening towards material feelings that are both tenderizing and tender. A roadrunner, despite its apparent stamina, can only run for so long. Says the story’s weary troubadour: “I often think about myself at the end of high school, about that roadrunner, a second before exploding, his head low, no direction, just a bunch of young, strong muscles that made him keep going… .” Part of the power in Rachele Salvini’s rendering is how mutually she treats the bodies on her pages. Cockroaches, opossums, a chimerical and ill-fated gator, flies—all feel distinctly alive, as in: failing, wounded, and ultimately desirous of something as yet ungraspable, but more, like us.”

—Jess Arndt, Contest Judge & author of Large Animals

We look forward to publishing these two exemplary manuscripts in Spring 2025!

Finalists:

Max McDonough — Egg, Harbor

Paul Cunningham — Knot A Train

Isaac George Lauritsen — Hey, Neighbor: A Poem Threw Through A Window So Slimly Slid Open

Andrew Payton — Strandings

G.C. Waldrep — Elam House (Austin, Minnesota)

Dabin Jeong — Swallow

Congratulations to our winners, finalists, and honorable mentions, and sincere thanks to all who gave us the honor of reading their work.

Chapbook Series

2022: Kieron Walquist’s Love Locks (purchase) has won the 2022 chapbook contest judged by Luther Hughes. Jeddie Sophronius’s Blood • Letting (purchase) has been selected as runner-up. Mylo Lam’s AND NOT / AND YET (purchase) has been selected as editors’ choice.

2021: Mukethe Kawinzi’s saanens, nubians, one lamancha (purchase), winner of the 2021 chapbook contest judged by TC Tolbert. Alyssandra Tobin’s Put Eyes on Me Not Like a Curse (purchase) selected as editors’ choice.

2020: Benjamin Gucciardi’s Timeless Tips for Simple Sabotage (purchase), winner of the 2020 chapbook contest judged by Elena Passarello. Katherine MacCue’s Cassandra, Cassandra (purchase), contest runner-up. Penelope Pelizzon’s Of Vinegar Of Pearl (purchase) and Alice Hall’s Universal Casket (purchase) selected as editors’ choices.

2019: Jadyn Dewald’s A Love Supreme: Fragments and Ephemera has taken the first place in the 2019 chapbook contest. Lauren Fath’s A Landlocked State and Andrea Spofford & Stephanie Bryant Anderson’s Phrasebook for the Common Era were selected as editors’ choices. Purchase any of our chapbooks here.

2018: Carlos Price-Sanchez’s Paper Waters, judged by Kaveh Akbar (purchase here). Brooke Larsen’s Origami Drama was selected as runner-up (purchase here). Anne Champion’s She Saints & Holy Profanities (here) and Mel Bosworth & Ryan Ridge’s A Month of Sundays (here) were selected as editors’ choices.

2017: John Jodzio’s This is All the Orientation You’re Gonna Get, judged by Garrard Conley (purchase here). Brandon Thurman’s Strange Flesh was selected as runner-up (purchase here).

2016: Juan Carlos Reyes’s A Summer’s Lynching: A Novella in Thirteen Loops, judged by Kate Bernheimer (purchase here).

2015: Mark Baumer’s Holiday Meat, judged by Lily Hoang.

2014: Nathan Poole’s Pathkiller as the Holy Ghost, judged by Ben Percy (purchase here).

2013: Tim Wirkus’s Sandy Downs, judged by Michael Martone (purchase here).