Complete Guidelines

We invite you, with this first annual prize, to join the Lyric family. One prize package consisting of:

1. $300

2. a limited edition signed broadside from our broadside series (comprised currently of pieces by Czeslaw Milosz and Jean Valentine)

3. a lifetime subscription to Lyric

4. publication in the journal

The prize package will be given for a poem or group of poems. In order to present more than just a snapshot of any one writer’s work, Lyric strives to present multiple poems (or a longer poem) by its authors – and we hope this contest will help us continue that tradition. However, please do not go overboard with the length of your contest submission. There are no criteria, apart from quality, for the poems themselves. At this time, we are not accepting translations for the Family Prize; however, we hope to create a prize exclusively for new poetry in translation in the near future.

The 2008 Lyric Family Prize will be judged by a prominent past contributor to Lyric (a family member, if you will) whose name will be announced on our website along with the winner. Submit up to three poems, with a $10 entry fee, by January 15, 2009 to:

2008 Lyric Family Prize, PO Box 2494, Bloomington, IN 47402

If you would like announcement of the prize-winners to be sent to you in the mail, please include a SASE with your submission.