Four Quartets Prize

Award Details

• Fourteen pages of published poems unified by subject, form, and style is the minimum per submission.
• The poems must have been published in a print or online journal, chapbook, or book in 2019.
• Entire books composed of a unified sequence however long are also welcome.
• The unity of shorter sequences, which are enthusiastically welcomed, should be apparent but also articulated in a paragraph describing the aims of the sequence. Such a statement should accompany each submission, book-length or shorter.
• If the poems in the sequence have been published separately in print or online journals or in a chapbook, please include four copies of the table of contents and the copyright page of each journal or chapbook attached to the poems published in that publication.
• If the sequence is contained in a book, please send four copies of the sequence along with four copies of the table of contents' page and the copyright page.
• Please be sure to order the poems in the sequence.
• If the sequence constitutes an entire book, please send four copies of the book.
• Self-published work is ineligible.
• Only one submission per author will be considered.
• Only work published in 2019 will be considered.
• The Poetry Society of America will accept submissions from authors, publishers, and literary agents
  
• The submission must be accompanied by an entry form.
• There is no submission fee.

For an acknowledgment of receipt of submissions, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions over the phone or email or inform entrants of incorrectly submitted or disqualified material, nor can we accept any corrections or revisions to submissions. No entries will be returned.


A Note on Conflict of Interest

The following is based on CLMP's code of ethics, in order to outline the conflict of interest policy for the judges of the Four Quartets Prize:

Current Board of Directors and staff of Poetry Society of America are excluded, as are members of their immediate families from entering. In the case that an entry to the contest is by a close friend, relative, student, or former student of a judge, the judge must recuse themselves from the conversation and judging of that work. As poetry is a relatively small community, we feel an acquaintance or participation in a workshop taught by the judge doesn’t necessitate a recusal. Anyone wondering if they might be a “close friend” probably is. It seems silly to define friendship, but for the purposes of this contest, we'll call a “close friend” anyone with whom we have direct correspondence (either written or verbal) once a month or more.

The prize is to be presented by the T.S. Eliot Foundation in partnership with the Poetry Society of America.