MEUDT and KAHN AWARDS
Two winners will be chosen for the College Undergraduate Poetry (CUP) Competition, one receiving the Edna Meudt Memorial Award; the other receiving the Florence Kahn Memorial Award. For each winner, prizes include:
$500 prize.
Publication of the manuscript as a perfect-bound 6"x9" chapbook, to be marketed through Amazon.com.
75 free copies of the chapbook.
Invitation to read from winning work at the 2016 NFSPS Convention, to be held June 9-13 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
$300 travel stipend, if attending the convention.
Complimentary registration for the entire convention. Complimentary dinner on Friday evening when the winners read. (Winners are responsible for the balance of their convention costs, e.g., meals and lodging, and for any guests who accompany them.
Complimentary one-year membership in an NFSPS-affiliated state poetry society of the winner's choosing and in NFSPS.
Book release at the NFSPS annual convention. While a winner is present at the convention, he/she will be given help in selling books directly and/or in the convention book room and will receive all proceeds from those sales.
ELIGIBILITY
Undergraduates working toward a degree in an accredited
U.S. college or university during the contest submission period are eligible to
enter the CUP Competition.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Application and Manuscript. Complete the application form and upload your manuscript file online at www.nfsps.submittable.com/college. The manuscript must be a single document that contains only your title page followed by ten poems. Once you have uploaded the file, you cannot make edits. Acceptable file formats include .doc and .docx (MS Word) and .pdf.
Fees. There is no contest submission fee and no charge to open an account at Submittable.com. You may keep your Submittable account permanently.
Submission Period. Submissions open the first minute of December 1, 2015, and close automatically at midnight, Pacific Standard Time, on January 31, 2016. Make sure you know your local time relative to PST. Students in Hawaii and Alaska are advised to submit no later than January 30. Indeed, we urge every entrant to submit early so that our committee can advise if you encounter problems; we likely cannot help if you wait until the last day of the contest.
Alternative Submission Request. You must have the contest chair's prior approval by January 15, 2016, to enter the competition by any other means than online submission as described above. She will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept paper manuscripts. Unauthorized paper manuscripts or e-mailed manuscripts will not be accepted. If the chair approves an alternative submission, she will give you instructions on how to proceed. Send your name, address, telephone number and email address with your request to: Shirley Blackwell, CUP Chair, P.O. Box 1352, Los Lunas, NM 87031. Approved paper submissions must reach her by noon, Saturday, January 30, 2016 (post office hours in Los Lunas).
MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES: Not following ALL guidelines disqualifies a submission.
No Identification. There must be no author identification on any page of the manuscript.
Title Page and Ten Poems. The manuscript will include only the title page and ten (10) original, unpublished poems. Note that poems posted on a public website or public social media are considered published. You will be required to confirm that your poetry is original and unpublished.
Titles. Except for haiku and related Japanese forms, each poem must be titled.
Poem Length. Each poem must be no more than 46 lines, including the title, any epigraph, and the spaces between stanzas.
Poem Width. Each line must have no more than 50 characters, including punctuation marks and spaces between words.
Title Page. The first manuscript page will include only the title of your manuscript, centered on the page and followed by a page break.
Poem Arrangement. Page 2 of your manuscript will be the first of your ten poems, with the others following in the order they would appear in a chapbook. Insert a page break after the text on each page.
Fonts and Spacing. Use a 12-point standard font (e.g., Times New Roman) and black ink. Colored text and script, fancy or unusual fonts will not be accepted. Single-space your poems and start lines at the left margin, unless you are clearly using spacing as a poetic device.
Pagination. Each page must have a footer with the title of the manuscript in the lower left corner and the page number in the lower right corner.
Auxiliary pages (Dedication, Acknowledgments, Cover letter, Bio, etc.) Do NOT include these in your initial entry. Winners will be asked for a brief biography and will have ample opportunity to include the other elements during the editing phase.
JUDGING and NOTIFICATION OF WINNERS
Judging. Award recipients will be selected from the independent rankings of three anonymous judges. Manuscripts are judged blind from those entries complying with all contest guidelines. Decisions are final.
Notification of Winners. By email on March 7, entrants will be notified of who has won and/or placed in the competition. Winners will be announced in the April issue of Strophes, the NFSPS newsletter, available at www.nfsps.com.
Contact Information. If there is any change in your contact information before results are announced, please notify Shirley Blackwell by email at .