The 2020 Spacks Prize winning book, Curriculum by Meghan Dunn, is now available from Gunpowder Press. Congratulations, Meghan!
Mother Lode
By Peg Quinn
Selected for the first Spacks Prize “Editor’s Choice” Award
Burning Down Disneyland
By Kurt Olsson
Selected by final judge Thomas Lux as winner of the 2016 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize
What Breathes Us: Santa Barbara Poets Laureate 2005-2015
Includes poems and intro to each poet laureate and a forward by Santa Barbara’s mayor.
What’s Up, Gunpowder?

Spacks Prize Reading!
April 25, 2021 • 5:00-6:15 PDT
Save the date! Thanks to the post-geography wonder of Zoom, we will be celebrating our most recent Spacks Prize winner, Meghan Dunn for her manuscript Curriculum (2020 winner, selected by Jessica Jacobs), with ALL PREVIOUS SPACKS PRIZE WINNERS, including: Catherine Abbey Hodges for Instead of Sadness (2015 winner, selected by Dan Gerber) Kurt Olsson for […]
Other recent announcements:
Barry Spacks Poetry Prize
Lynne Thompson to serve as final judge for the 2021 Spacks Prize
The editors are honored that Lynne Thompson has agreed to serve as the final judge for the 2021 Spacks Prize. The Spacks Prize is awarded annually to a full-length manuscript of original poems. Previous judges include Dan Gerber, Thomas Lux, Jane Hirshfield, Lee Herrick, Stephen Dunn, and Jessica Jacobs. We are grateful for their generous […]