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The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize

The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize

Judged by Nin Andrews

1st prize: £750 / $900. 2nd prize: £300 / $360. 3rd prize: £100 / $120

450 words maximum

The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize is entering its third year in 2025. We try to recruit the best prose poets in the world to judge your prose poems. We’ve had Maya C. Popa, Carrie Etter, and now we have Nin Andrews.

Nin has written 10 collections of poetry, and 6 chapbooks, including The Last Orgasm (2020), Miss August (2017), and Why God is a Woman (2015). She is the recipient of two Ohio individual artists grants, the Pearl Chapbook prize, The Kent State University chapbook contest, and the Gerald Cable Award. Her book, Southern Comfort, was a finalist for the Forward prize in poetry 2010, and her collection, Why God is a Woman won the Ohiona Prize for poetry in 2016.

Her poetry has been featured in numerous journals and anthologies including Ploughshares, Agni, The Paris Review, four editions of Best American Poetry, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, and The Best American Erotic Poems.

After her first book, The Book of Orgasms, turned into a cult classic, she became known as “the queen of orgasms.” Her poetry has been translated into Turkish, performed in Prague and anthologized in England, Australia, and Mongolia. She is also the editor of a book of translations of the Belgian writer, Henri Michaux. Her collection, Son or a Bird, a Memoir in Prose Poems is forthcoming in 2025 from Etruscan Press.

Nin is an expert in this exciting hybrid form. She resides and writes in Charlottesville, Ohio, in the good ole US of A.

So, please send Nin your prose poems. To be long-listed (that’s the final 20) is an achievement. To be shortlisted in the Top 10, or place second or third, or to win will be a validation of your skills, and get you published in our third anthology, in 2025.

“I'm looking forward to reading some great poems from all over the world.”

Nin Andrews

The Prizes

First Prize: £750 / *$900

Second Prize: £300 / *$360

Third Place: £100 / *$120

Top 10

The 10 shortlisted entries will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, which will be launched at our third awards ceremony, in 2025.

Terms and Conditions

Rules

Rules

  • OPEN NOW. Deadline: 31st March 2025
  • Writers can enter any number of times. (£10.00 / $12.00 Subsequent/discount entry: £7.50 / $9.00)
  • Poems can be in any style or form, but must be in English, and written for adults.
  • Entries must be submitted online. No email submissions. Postal entries discouraged.
  • Enter the correct version of your work. If you make a mistake, entry fees will not be refunded. (You will have to enter again.)

Eligibility

Read the rules carefully before entering the competition. Entry implies acceptance of all the rules and failure to comply will result in disqualification.

All entries are judged anonymously. Please do not include your name, address, phone number, email, website, twitter handle etc on the document or in the file name or it will be disqualified.

Entries will be disqualified if they are over the 60 line limit, and there will be no refund.

Entries must be entirely your own work.

Entries must NOT have been published traditionally because we will publish the 10 shortlisted in our anthology. Self-published work or work published in online journals ARE eligible for entry.

Entries must NOT have won in any other competition. If your entry was long-listed or shortlisted in other competitions it IS still eligible.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed but if an entry wins a prize elsewhere, is published or scheduled for future publication, prior to the date of prize giving, you must inform us to withdraw immediately. Entry fees will not be refunded.

Length

Maximum 60 lines.


Fees

£10.00 / *$12.50 per poem. (Subsequent/discount entry: £7.50 / *$9.50)

Entries must be submitted online via Jotform and paid via Paypal.

Format

  • Entries must be typed, can be SINGLE- or DOUBLE-spaced, with the title on the top of every page. (Any formatting issues will not lead to disqualification. Please just make sure your work is as easy to read as possible.)
  • Save as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF file with the title as the file name. Do not include your name in the file name as this will lead to disqualification.
  • Max 2MB file. Include the line count for the poem, top right, first page.
  • Do not add cover pages.
  • No illustrated work.

Judging

The judges’ decision is final. No individual correspondence can be entered into. Judges are unable to comment on individual entries. The Plaza Prizes reserves the right to change the judge without notice.

The Plaza Prizes reserves the right to amend the rules where it deems necessary. Any changes to the rules will be posted on our website.

Copyright

Copyright remains with the author, but The Plaza Prizes reserves the right to publish poems in an anthology and use extracts from any of the 10 shortlisted poems for publicity purposes.

Results

The Prose Poetry prize-winners will be announced on the website and social media in May 2025. The 10 short-listed entries will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, which will be launched at our awards ceremony in October 2025.

Bursary Scheme

We have offered 250 bursaries in 2022-2024. We are offering 100 FREE ENTRY BURSARIES in 2025 across all our competitions to poets/writers on low incomes, and from underrepresented groups. You can apply for a bursary if low income, class, race, age, gender, sexuality, caring responsibilities, location, disability, or mental and physical health affects your writing. We want to encourage equality to discover quality new writing from diverse voices.
To apply, please contact: simon@theplazaprizes.com

Enter by pressing the big orange button below.