Opportunities → Chapbook Competition
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
For more than 25 years, Center for Book Arts has annually invited writers to submit a manuscript for review by a guest judge who is an expert in the field.
The guest judge selects a winner and two runners-up for the competition.
CBA then commissions artists to design and produce a limited-edition chapbook of the competition winner’s manuscript, a limited-edition chapbook of a manuscript by the guest judge, and two limited-edition broadsides respectively featuring poems by the competition runners-up.
CBA also programs a reading and publication launch as part of the competition. Publications from previous competitions are available in the bookshop.
Each year, the competition winner receives ten copies of their chapbook, a $500 honorarium, a $500 stipend to participate in the competition reading, a week-long stay at Millay Arts, and one copy each of the guest judge’s chapbook and the runners-up’s broadsides.
The two runners up each receive ten copies of their respective limited-edition broadside, a $250 honorarium to participate in the competition reading, and one copy each of the winner and guest judge’s chapbooks.
ABOUT THE 2022 COMPETITION (SUBMISSION CLOSED)
2022 Guest Judge: Mei-mei Berssenbrugge is the author of fourteen books of poetry, and has collaborated with many artists, including Richard Tuttle and Kiki Smith. Her most recent book, A Treatise on Stars (New Directions), received the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. She lives in northern New Mexico.
PREVIOUS COMPETITIONS
2021 Competition
Winner: Bianca Rae Messinger
Runners-up: Dujie Tahat & Benjamin Aleshire
Guest Judge: Simone White
2020 Competition
Winner: Katerina I. Ramos-Jordán
Runners-up: Rushi Vyas & Emily Bludworth de Barrios
Guest Judge: Raquel Salas Rivera
2019 Competition
Winner: Miriam Bird Greenberg
runners-up: Ayokunle Falomo & Trinity Tibe
Guest Judge: Edwin Torres
2018 Competition
Winner: Luisa A. Igloria
Runners-up: Jason Baker & Elly Bookman
Guest Judge: Natasha Trethewey
2017 Winner
Winner: Kim Fberly Kruge
Runners-up: Dave Denny & Basma Kavanagh
Guest Judge: Juan Filipe Herrera
2016 Winner
Winner: Emily Carlson
Runners-up: Fritz Ward & Patrick Donnelly
Guest Judge: Mary Ruefle
2015 Competition
Winner: Diana Marie-Delgado
Runners-up: Joy Katz & Pablo Miguel Martinez
Guest Judge: Cornelius Eady
2014 Competition
Winner: Sara Wallace
Runners-up: Carol Ann Davis & M. Callen
Organized by David St. John
2013 Competition
Winner: Sandra Beasley
Runners-up: Sheila Carter-Jones, Joshua Kryah & Alexandra Lytton Regalado
Guest Judge: Henryette Mullen
2012 Competition
Winner: V. Penelope Pelizzon
Runners up Rob Stephens & Susan B.A. Somers-Willet
Organized by Phillis Levin
2011 Competition
Winner: Nehassaiu deGannes
Runners-up: Sue Burton & Mark McKain
Guest Judge: Kimiko Hahn
2010 Competition
Winner: Alexander Long
Runners-up: Hadara Bar-Nadar, Deborah Flanagan & Jennifer Perrine
Guest Judge: Terrance Hayes
2009 Competition
Winner: Bonnie Jo Campbell
Runners up: Lucia Perillo & Teresa Leo
Guest Judge: Kim Addonizio
2008 Competition
Winner: Robert Ostrom
Runners-up: Page Starzinger & Rusty Morrison
Guest Judge: Tomaz Salamun
2007 Competition
Winner: Eric Pankey
Runners up Beth Ann Fennelly and Ann Snodgrass
Organized by Jane Hirshfield
2006 Competition
Winner: Jesse Lee Kercheval
Runners-up: Stephanie Lenox & Matthew Thorburn
Guest Judge: Albert Goldbarth
2005 Competition
Winner: Ailish Hopper
Runners-up: Ann Fisher-Wirth & Joy Katz
Guest Judge: Jean Valentine
2004 Competition
Winner: Jeffrey Skinner
Runners up: Jillian Weise & Ted Mathys
Guest Judge: C.K. Williams
2003 Competition
Winner L.B. Thompson
Runners-up: Eve Grubin & Barbara Ungar
Guest Judge: Marie Howe
2002 Competition
Winner: Rachel Zucker
Guest Judge: Lynn Emmanuel
2001 Competition
Winner: Jack Ridl
Guest Judge: Billy Collins
2000 Competition
Winner Terri Witek
Guest Judge: Rachel Hadas
1999 Competition
Winner: Donald Platt
Guest Judge: Eaven Boland
1998 Competition
Winner: James Haug
Guest Judge: Gerald Stern
1997 Competition
Winner Judith Vollmer
Guest Judge: Mark Doty
1996 Competition
Winner: Andrew Kaufman