A nonprofit poetry press based in Portland, Oregon, Tavern Books (www.tavernbooks.com) exists “to print, promote, and preserve works of literary vision, to foster a climate of cultural preservation, and to disseminate books in a way that benefits the reading public.” Led by founding editor Carl Adamshick and managing editor Natalie Garyet, the press publishes original poetry collections; works in translation; and select reprints through its Living Library series, a catalogue of “innovative poets ranging from first-time authors and neglected masters to Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel Laureates.” Recent titles include Fire Water World & Among the Dog Eaters by Adrian C. Louis and Collected Translations by David Wevill. Original full-length manuscripts by emerging women poets are accepted annually through the press’s Wrolstad series, established in honor of Greta Wrolstad, a poet who died at the age of twenty-four and whose books, Notes on Sea & Shore (2010) and Night Is Simply a Shadow (2013), were published by Tavern Books posthumously. Women poets ages forty and under who are U.S. citizens may submit to the series, which carries a twenty-five-dollar reading fee, from October 1 through January 15 each year. The press also accepts year-round submissions of poetry collections in translation and single-author reprints of out-of-print collections (from writers of any age or gender), and publishes the Honest Pint, a unique monthly literary journal comprising a prose piece—an essay, hybrid work, comic strip, or handwritten letter—by a contemporary author that celebrates the work of a single poet. Edited by poet Matthew Dickman, each issue is distinctively designed and printed, and often includes original artwork and rare ephemera related to the featured poet’s work.
Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.