Poetry Prizes

Gunpowder Press hosts several annual poetry prizes, from awards for individual poems to full-length books.
To learn more about about specific contests and deadlines, visit the Gunpowder Press Submittable page.

The Barry Spacks Poetry Prize

The Spacks Prize is Gunpowder’s original book prize, honoring Santa Barbara’s first Poet Laureate, Barry Spacks. Awarded annually for a full-length collection of original poems. Submissions generally accepted between January 1-April 30.

  • The 2025 Spacks Prize was awarded to Michele Santamaria for Color Advisory Board, forthcoming from Gunpowder Press.
  • The 2024 Spacks Prize was awarded to TWO poets: Holly Karapetkova for Dear Empire and Keith Ekiss for Burial Fragments.
  • The 2023 Spacks Prize was awarded to Kellam Ayres for In the Cathedral of My Undoing, selected by Gary Soto.
  • The 2022 Spacks Prize was awarded to Catherine Esposito Prescott for Accidental Garden, selected by Danusha Laméris.
  • The 2021 Spacks Prize was awarded to Todd Copeland for Like All Light, selected by Lynne Thompson.
  • The 2020 Spacks Prize was awarded to Meghan Dunn for Curriculum, selected by Jessica Jacobs. Peg Quinn‘s Mother Lode was also selected for publication as an Editors’ Choice.
  • The 2019 Spacks Prize was awarded to Glenn Freeman for Drinking with O’Hara, selected by Stephen Dunn.
  • The 2018 Prize was awarded to Michelle Bonczek Evory for The Ghosts of Lost Animals, selected by final judge Lee Herrick.
  • The 2017 Prize was awarded to Aaron Baker for Posthumous Noon, selected by final judge Jane Hirshfield.
  • The 2016 Prize was awarded to Kurt Olsson for Burning Down Disneyland, selected by final judge Thomas Lux.
  • The inaugural Spacks Prize was awarded to Catherine Abbey Hodges in 2015 for Instead of Sadness, selected by final judge Dan Gerber.

Alta California Chapbook Series

The Alta California Chapbook Prize is awarded annually for 8-10 pages of poetry by a Latine poet living in the U.S. Winning poems are then translated and published by Gunpowder Press in bilingual editions. Previous winners include:

John Ridland Poetry Prize

The Ridland Prize is awarded annually for a full-length manuscript by a poet age 55 or older. Previous winners include:

  • 2025: Andrea Carter for Figeater
  • 2024: Joshua McKinney‘s Sad Animal

The Dryden-Vreeland Book Prize

The Dryden-Vreeland Prize is awarded every other year for a full-length manuscript by a poet working in K-12 education.

Carol Decanio Abeles Young Poets Prize

The Carol Decanio Abeles Young Poets Prize is awarded for individual poems by elementary school-aged poets who have participated in the California Poets in the Schools program in Santa Barbara County. The Young Poets Prize honors Santa Barbara poet Carol Decanio Abeles.

Carol Decanio Abeles Emerging Poets Prize

The Carol Decanio Abeles Emerging Poets Prize recognizes extraordinary poems by adult poets in Santa Barbara County who have not yet published a full-length book of poems. The Prize honors Santa Barbara poet Carol Decanio Abeles.