Perugia Press Prize

for a First or Second Book by a Woman

The winner of the Perugia Press Prize receives:

• Book publication & $2,000 prize
• Twenty author copies & ongoing discount of 50% off of the cover price for additional copies
• Time to work with the editor to create a book the poet loves, with input into book editing, design & promotion
• Support available from the Perugia Poet Liaison during publication & promotion
• Review copies & entry copies to a range of post-publication contests, provided & sent by the Press
• Some book launch events planned by the Press, with a partial travel stipend & reading honorariums provided
• Ongoing publicity support through our website, newsletter & social media
• Exposure through Press attendance at local & national book fairs to promote the work of Perugia poets

Eligibility:

• Poets must be women, which includes all gender-expansive definitions of that term. Because gender inequity still occurs in publishing, this is part of our explicit feminist mission.
• Perugia Press seeks to highlight marginalized and underrepresented voices in our publications, and to that end we encourage submissions written by poets of all abilities, ages, and sexual orientations, and from across all cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.
• Poets must have no more than one previously published full-length book. You are still eligible if you have published a poetry chapbook/s or books in other genres. You are still eligible if you have published more than one full-length poetry collection in a language other than English.
• Perugia Press welcomes diversity of expression in content, form, and language. We are open to considering hybrid manuscripts, including those incorporating visuals or created in collaboration.
• The work you submit must be your own and not plagiarized or AI-generated. If you used AI as a creative tool in composition, please note that in your cover letter and manuscript.
• Individual poems may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, and chapbooks, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.
• Translations of the work of others and previously self-published books are not eligible.
• Submissions from poets living outside the U.S. are not eligible, though international submissions from poets based in the U.S. but away during our contest period are fine. As a small press, we are not able to support the promotion of our books on a global scale.
• Poets may not be a close friend or colleague of the editor/director as she facilitates the contest and takes part in the final decision about the winning manuscript.

Guidelines:

• Manuscripts must be submitted between August 1 and November 15.
• Manuscripts are generally between 45-85 pages. Please submit manuscripts that fall within or close to this page count.
• Use a legible font, include page numbers on each page, and include a table of contents.
• One poem per page (this means don’t place multiple poems on one page; single poems that are multiple pages in length are fine).
• We read anonymously. Remove identifying material (name, address, email, bio, publications acknowledgements, etc.).
• We only accept online submissions. Follow all application instructions to upload your manuscript to our page on Submittable.
• Cover letter and bio may be added, but are not required. Publications acknowledgments may be included in “cover letter” box also, but should be excluded from the manuscript itself.
• You may submit more than one manuscript; each is considered independently and is entered through a separate form.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine. Notify Perugia Press through Submittable if accepted elsewhere.
• Submission fees are integral to our operations and go directly toward the mission and work of our independent, nonprofit literary press. In an effort to remove barriers and make submissions more accessible for all, Perugia Press asks poets to choose the submission rate that works for them: $30 (w/free book choice), $15 (reduced rate), or fee-free for poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). NOTE: Until Perugia Press achieves more equitable representation, we'll offer a fee-free submission option for BIWOC poets. This is a reparation and not an assumption of financial need; we intend to do our part to repay BIWOC poets for the extra time and energy it takes to navigate systemic racism in the publishing industry while we help work to dismantle it. Your mode of submitting will have no bearing on our consideration of your manuscript. Thank you for your support!

Selection Process:

• To be certain that manuscripts receive fair consideration, all manuscripts are submitted to readers and judges anonymously.
• At least two readers review every submission, at each stage of the process. In the final stages, eight judges review the semi-finalists, and three judges review the finalists. The editor/director weighs in at the finalist stage to help choose the winning manuscript.
• Our reading and judging panels vary year to year; many poets submit in subsequent years and always receive a fresh look at their work.
• All readers and judges are trusted and respected by Perugia Press, and we are committed to inclusive representation within our reading and judging panels.
• Winner is announced by April 1, after we let individual submitters know the results. We announce the results, including semi-finalists, finalists, and the winner, via our newsletter, this website, and on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. If you submitted and did not hear back, please check your spam or those places.
• We adhere to the CLMP Ethics Statement. See below.

Ethics Statement:

We endorse and agree to comply with the following statement released by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses:

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to:

1. conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;
2. provide clear and specific contest guidelines - defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and
3. make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public.

This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.