Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

2027 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize

$2,500 for a First Book of Poems

This prize is offered annually to a poet who has not previously published a full-length collection of poems. The prize awards the winner with $2,500 and publication of their first full-length book of poetry by the Kent State University Press. The winner and the competition's judge will give a reading together on the Kent State campus.

The 2026 winner was invisible waves of heat by Fay Dillof selected by Camille Dungy

The 2027 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize judge is Camille Dungy

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times best-selling author of the poetry book, NIGHT OWL (Ecco, 2026), and two illustrated collections of essays, BITE BY BITE and WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, which was chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year and named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She also wrote four previous award-winning poetry collections: OCEANIC, LUCKY FISH, AT THE DRIVE-IN VOLCANO, and MIRACLE FRUIT. With the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook  LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears in The New Yorker, The Nation, and twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Poetry magazine, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.

Honors include a poetry fellowship from US Artist Fellows, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. For a decade, she served as the poetry editor for Orion and Sierra magazines. A professor of English and Creative Writing for over twenty five years, she also serves as a firefly guide for Mississippi State Parks. 

First Book Archive

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

• The competition is open to poets writing in English who have not yet published a full-length collection of poems including self-published collections with a run of under 100.
• There is a $27 reading fee.
• Submissions must consist of 50 to 80 pages of poetry, with no more than one poem included on a page.
• The poet's name or identifying information must not appear on the manuscript.
• Include one title page with the manuscript title only. List all other contact information in the "cover letter" box of the submissions manager. Entries are judged anonymously. If any identifying information is found in the manuscript, including publication information or identifying dedications or notes, the manuscript will be disqualified.
• Do not include an acknowledgments page. If an acknowledgments page is included in the manuscript, the manuscript will be disqualified.
• The manuscript may be submitted simultaneously to other publishers, but the poet must notify the Wick Poetry Center immediately if the manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• A winner will be announced in the fall of 2027