The entry period for the 2025 Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize is CLOSED. We are busy reading your poems! Thank you for all your amazing submissions.

Submissions are CLOSED!

THIS YEAR’S JUDGE IS Maggie Smith.

For more information about Ms. Smith click here.

1st Prize: $1,500 and publication
Honorable Mention: $500 and publication
All finalists will be published in the Spring/Summer 2024 Awards issue. Finalists will be paid at regular contributor rates ($10/page with a $40 minimum and $200 maximum.)

WE ARE CLOSED FOR SUBMISSIONS

Guidelines:

Submissions are OPEN between September 1, 2024, and November 1, 2024. You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry should include no more than three poems. Name and address on cover letter only. No identifying information on poems or in file name. $20 fee per entry includes a copy of the Awards issue. Each submission is carefully considered for publication. Please submit previously unpublished work only. Any size print run or online publication (including blogs and/or social networking) disqualifies an entry.

AUTHOR NAME OR OTHER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION SHOULD NOT APPEAR IN YOUR TITLE OR ANYWHERE ON YOUR UPLOADED OR HARD COPY DOCUMENT. ENTRIES THAT IDENTIFY THE SUBMITTER/AUTHOR IN ANY WAY WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED WITHOUT A REFUND.

december accepts submissions online through Submittable.

december does not accept simultaneous submissions. We respond as quickly as possible. (Contest submissions may not be responded to until after the close of the contest when all submissions have been considered.)

december also accepts submissions through the U.S. mail. If submitting by mail, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with sufficient postage, your $20.00 entry fee (check or cash — NO MONEY ORDERS), and indicate if you would like your manuscript returned.

december assumes no responsibility for delayed, lost, or damaged manuscripts.

Address postal submissions and correspondence to:

december
P.O. Box 16130
St. Louis, MO 63105