Contest Submission Guidelines

Submissions:

• Manuscripts must be typed on standard-sized paper, in English. Poetry manuscripts should be approximately 50 pages minimum, 110 pages maximum, single spaced. Short fiction collections should be approximately 150 pages minimum, 300 pages maximum, double spaced.
• Entries must include two title pages: one with author name, address and phone number; and one with no author information. Any acknowledgments should appear on a separate piece of paper.
• Entries must include a table of contents.
• Author's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
• Please submit your manuscript in loose pages, bound only with a clip or rubber band. We prefer that you do not staple or permanently bind your manuscript. Do not submit your manuscript by fax or e-mail.
• Simultaneous and multiple submissions are acceptable. Please notify us of acceptance elsewhere.
• A SASE should be included, for notification only. Note: No manuscripts will be returned.
• A non-refundable reading fee of $25 in US funds (check made payable to BkMk Press) must accompany each manuscript. Entrants will receive a copy of the winning book in their genre when it is published.
• Manuscripts must be postmarked no later than January 15, 2008. 

Manuscripts will not be returned.  No refunds will be issued.

Judging will be blind at all levels. Initial judging will be done by a network of published writers and editors. The final judging will be done by a poet and a fiction writer of national reputation. Winners will be announced in July 2008 and the winning entries will be published in 2009.

These competitions are held annually.

John Ciardi Prize for Poetry or Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction
BkMk Press
University of Missouri-Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499


(816) 235-2558*
Fax (816) 235-2611
bkmk@umkc.edu

Available to contest entrants at the special price of $5 each postage paid are the following titles from BkMk Press:

Stations of the Air by John Ciardi. These poems were collected after Ciardi's death in 1986.

Family of Mirrors, poems by G. S. Sharat Chandra, professor of English at UMKC who died in 2000.

Available to contest entrants at the special price of $10 each postage paid are the past winners of the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry: The Resurrection Machine by Steve Gehrke, 1999 winner, selected by Miller Williams; Kentucky Swami by Tim Skeen, 2001 winner, selected by Michael Burns; 2002 winner Escape Artist by Terry Blackhawk, selected by Molly Peacock; 2003 winner Fence Line by Curtis Bauer, selected by Christopher Buckley; 2004 winner The Portable Famine by Rane Arroyo (selected by Robin Becker); 2005 winner Wayne's College of Beauty by David Swanger (selected by Colleen J. McElroy); and the past winners of the Chandra Prize: 2002 winner A Bed of Nails by Ron Tanner (selected by Janet Burroway); 2003 winner I'll Never Leave You by H. E. Francis, selected by Diane Glancy; and 2004 winner The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories by Billy Lombardo, selected by Gladys Swan; and Necessary Lies by Kerry Neville Bakken, (selected by Hilary Masters).

In 2007, watch for Ciardi Prize winner Voiceprints by Paula Bonnell, selected by Mark Jarman; and Chandra Prize winner Love Letters from a Fat Man by Naomi Benaron, selected by Stuart Dybek.