2025 Perugia Press Prize

The 2025 Perugia Press Prize Contest is open from August 1st to November 15th for full-length poetry manuscripts by women, which includes all gender-expansive definitions of that term, who have no more than one previously published full-length book. The winner receives:

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

More information can be found at perugiapress.org/contest.

Requirements

• 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been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, and chapbooks, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.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.

Application Instructions

Submissions are accepted online perugiapress.submittable.com/submit.