Congratulations to Catherine Esposito Prescott! Her manuscript Accidental Garden was selected by Danusha Laméris as the winner of the 2022 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize.
Spacks Prize increased to $1,000!
Gunpowder Press is very excited to announce that the award for the 2022 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize has been increased to $1,000, thanks to a generous gift given by an anonymous donor in recognition of Barry. We are so honored to continue his legacy of support for other poets. Barry loved playing with numbers (for […]
Starting January 1, 2022: Spacks Prize open for manuscripts
The editors of Gunpowder Press are happy to announce the final judge for the 2022 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize is Danusha Laméris! She is the author of The Moons of August (Autumn House, 2014), which was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press poetry prize and was a finalist for the […]
Todd Copeland selected for 2021 Spacks Prize
The editors of Gunpowder Press are thrilled to announce that Todd Copeland’s Like All Light was selected by Lynne Thompson as winner of the 2021 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 […]
2020 Spacks Prize Winner: Meghan Dunn
Final Judge Jessica Jacobs has selected Curriculum, by Meghan Dunn of Brooklyn, New York, as the winner of the 2020 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. The editors of Gunpowder Press are excited to publish this collection of timely and carefully-crafted poems. Read the judge’s response:
Glenn Freeman selected by Stephen Dunn for 2019 Spacks Prize
Gunpowder Press welcomed esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Dunn as final judge for the 2019 Spacks Prize. This year’s winner, chosen by Stephen Dunn, is Glenn Freeman of Cornell, Iowa, for his collection Drinking with O’Hara. The other finalists, in alphabetical order by poet’s last name: These Waters, John Belk Rosetta, by Karina Borowicz Luminous Body, Glittering Ash, by C.W. Emerson […]
Poet Stephen Dunn to judge the 2019 Spacks Prize
Gunpowder Press welcomes esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Dunn as final judge for the 2019 Spacks Prize. The Spacks Prize is awarded annually for a full-length collection of poetry. Dunn is the author of over a dozen books of poetry, including the National Poetry Series Prize-winning Local Time (1986), Landscape at the End of the Century (1991), Loosestrife (1996), Different Hours (2000), which won the Pulitzer Prize, What […]
2018 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize Winner Announced
Gunpowder Press is thrilled to announce that Michelle Bonczek Evory is the winner of the fourth annual Barry Spacks Poetry Prize for her book, The Ghosts of Lost Animals. Final judge Lee Herrick says of this book: Michelle Bonczek Evory’s The Ghosts of Lost Animals is full of risk, reward, gravity, invention, and surprise. There is a hunger […]
2018 Spacks Prize Open Now
We are honored that Lee Herrick will be the final judge for the 2018 Spacks Prize. Lee Herrick is the author of Gardening Secrets of the Dead and This Many Miles from Desire, and a third book, Scar and Flower, is forthcoming from Word Poetry Press in 2019. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, anthologies, and college textbooks, including The Bloomsbury Review, Columbia […]
2017 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize winner announced
Gunpowder Press is excited to announce that judge Jane Hirshfield has selected Aaron Baker’s Posthumous Noon as the winner of the 2017 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. The editors are grateful to Jane Hirshfield for being our final judge and for her constant outspoken advocacy of poetry and its power. There were 195 manuscripts submitted for […]
Jane Hirshfield to judge 2017 Spacks Prize
Gunpowder Press is honored that Jane Hirshfield will be the final judge for the 2017 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. Barry Spacks had tremendous respect and fondness for Hirshfield and her work, which gives special meaning to this year’s award. Submit your manuscript via Submittable here. Jane Hirshfield’s most recent, eighth book of poetry is The […]
2016 Spacks Prize Announcement
Kurt Olsson’s book Burning Down Disneyland was selected by final judge Thomas Lux as the winner of the 2016 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. Of this work, Thomas Lux said I love the title of this book (though I read it as metaphor!) and I love the innovative mischief of its poems. Let it be known: […]
Spacks Prize reading in progress
We are currently in the process of reviewing the 2016 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize submissions. Thank you for sharing your work with us!
2015 Spacks Prize awarded to Catherine Abbey Hodges
Dan Gerber has selected Catherine Abbey Hodges’s manuscript Instead of Sadness as the winner of the inaugural Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. In his judges’ commendation, Dan Gerber wrote: In Catherine Abbey Hodges’ Instead of Sadness the beauty is there as the bread of life, as the poems enter and grow in us—the kind of experience […]
Barry Spacks Poetry Prize
The submission period for the 2016 Spacks Prize is now open. The Barry Spacks Poetry Prize, awarded to an original full-length manuscript of poems. The prize honors Barry Spacks, an influential poet and teacher. The winning poet will have their manuscript published by Gunpowder Press, with 50 author copies and an award of $500. Gunpowder […]
