2024 Nature & Place Prize

February 22, 2024, to April 28, 2024

In our pursuit of gentleness, nostalgia, and a reimagining of “home,” Frontier Poetry is reviving the Nature & Place Prize. In her poem “Drowning Creek,” Ada Limón takes us into the countryside, “Past the strip malls and the power plants, / out of the holler, past Gun Bottom Road / and Brassfield and before Red Lick Creek, / there’s a stream called Drowning Creek….” On her journey, she has the strong urge to stop the car and observe the kingfisher perched on the transmission wire “eyeing the creek / for crayfish, tadpoles, and minnows.” She has aptly combined the urge to be in communion with nature, with the visceral landscape of place observed from the loneliness of a car ride. In this same vein, we invite you to submit work to the 2024 Nature & Place Prize.

We’re looking for poems rich and robust in language, technique, and form that pay homage to the natural world and all of the small marvels that occur in nature. We’re also interested in poems that observe geography and the landscape of home. Frontier Poetry warmly encourages poets of all backgrounds, identities, and ethnicities to enter. 

The first-place winner will receive $3,000 and publication. Second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200 respectively, as well as publication. All shortlisted writers will also be considered for paid publication in New Voices.

About the Guest Judge: 

Flower Conroy is a LGBTQIA+ artist, NEA and MacDowell Fellow, and former Key West Poet Laureate. Conroy’s books include Snake Breaking Medusa Disorder (winner of the Stevens Manuscript Prize), A Sentimental Hairpin (Eric Hoffer Finalist), and Greenest Grass (winner of the Blue Lynx Poetry prize). Her work has appeared/is forthcoming in New England Review, American Literary Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Currently she is curating a series of Ephemeral Altars that celebrate poetry collections through assemblage art.

What Flower Is Looking For:

When I initially heard the theme “Nature & Place,” I had a confident (albeit vague) idea what that might mean; however, the more I thought about it, my sense of nature and place became excitingly less certain, amorphous, vast. I want (from these submissions) what I’d want from any poem: I want to encounter that which I didn’t know I needed to encounter; I want surprise of detail and syntax, for a microcosm of a perspective and language (or languages) to flesh out a world I get lost in, to be entranced by keenness of being and experience retold; I want nuance, subtext, and imagery to awe me. The theme of "Nature & Place" strikes me as abstractly concrete and concretely abstract—it conjures landscape, yes, but perhaps landscape as a presence in relation to a self or selves. It’s flesh and dirt, past and future, internal and external. I’ve no preconceived notions of what the poems should be beyond being visceral.

Guidelines:

• Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
• Send us only your best, polished work—unpublished poems only, please.
• As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we are offering a free submission window for poets from historically marginalized groups at the beginning of the contest until we reach our cap of fifty. Please note the free portal will close when we hit our submission cap.
• Please do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• We ask for no more than three poems (five pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. We have no particular aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
• Each entry requires a submission fee of $20.
• Multiple submissions (of up to three poems apiece) are allowed, but each requires a separate entry fee.
• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio. Also include any content warnings in consideration of our reading staff.
• Work generated by AI will be automatically disqualified.
• Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing primarily in English. Some code-switching/meshing is very welcome. 
• Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with the guest judge.
• If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, email us: contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.
• The deadline is April 28, 2024. We plan to announce winners and finalists in Summer 2024.

Editorial Feedback Option:

This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on your submission, including suggestions for future submissions. The $149 option will provide you with three letters from three different editors. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee and all are astute and professional poets. Please allow eight to ten weeks after the contest closes to receive your feedback.

Dear Editor,

We're looking to bring on several guest editors to participate in our editorial feedback programs. This position would generally require the editor to write 2 pages of highly professional, encouraging, and actionable feedback to a single poem in the submitters packet, either based on the submitters request, or, if no poem is specified by submitter, the editors choosing.

We are looking for poets, editors, and educators with professional experience. Authors with and without MFAs are welcome to apply.

Please apply with your resume/CV, a sample work of poetry, and evidence of feedback experience, in addition to completing and attaching an editorial feedback letter (guidelines below). 

We're looking for two to three editors who can commit up to 20 hours of work each month. We pay $25/letter and typically assign 20-40 letters per month per editor (with the possibility of being assigned more). Letters typically take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to write, depending on the editor’s speed and style. 

If you feel like this is something you’re able to do (and you're eager to do it!)—please write 2 pages of feedback on the given poem below. Your feedback letter will help determine whether you are a good fit for the team.

Before jumping into the poem, please read these guidelines: 

Guidelines for Editorial Feedback Letter

Please give feedback in your own style, but some general guidelines:

• Always meet the poet where they're at. We get requests from folks who've been published in “big name” magazines, as well as folks who just started writing and think of poetry as a simple rhyme and meter. The art of this work is not to make more poets like yourself or your view of what poetry/poets should be, but to identify how this specific submitter's inner poet wants to express itself. Your job is to guide them where they are in an encouraging, actionable, and tangible way. 
• Prioritize on just one, maybe two points to develop. Our expertise is our ability to identify and prioritize skill-sets we think could be strengths for the poet. Two pages is not a lot of room for feedback on every aspect of their poem, prioritize what you find will help them progress as a poet most in this moment. 
• Focus on being practical. While it'll be appropriate sometimes to talk about the why of writing—these folks usually have a good why already or they wouldn't be spending money on the service. They want the how. Because where else would they get it?
• When relevant, try to have experts backing up your points. Quotes and examples are your friends and are good ways to get the poet to read something new or find a perspective they might not have prior to this letter. 
• Be succinct. Most letters should be 2 pages, single spaced (some overflow into a third page is fine, but 2 pages is the minimum). Try not to exceed that—one, you don't want to overwhelm the submitter, and two, when you've got a hundred of these to write, you don't want to burn yourself out.
• Always include 4-8 suggestions for places of submission. Submittable discover, Duotrope, and chill subs are some places to see a broader array of literary magazines. Make recommendations to the writer based on genre, aesthetics, and acceptance rates.
• Always read the submitter's bio. This is where you will learn about where they are as poet, their publication history, and whether they’ve specified which poem they want feedback on. It is crucial you pay attention to which poem they’ve requested feedback on. Not every poet will specify, and in the cases where they don’t, you can select the poem you want to give feedback on. This is always where you will find out if you’ve given feedback to this person before. We get many repeat submitters and you want to make sure you aren’t using the same template for the same writer or giving them the same kind of feedback. We try to assign repeats to different editors but it doesn’t always work out that way. 
• Be kind and respectful. While you are the expert in this situation, and your job is to give constructive and actionable feedback, this poet is being extremely vulnerable by offering their work to you as an editor. Please handle it with care and consideration. To you, this may be just another letter to write, to them, this feedback means so much. 
• Include your own bio at the end. Your readers will probably curious how or why they should trust you, adding your bio with your expertise, experience, and publication history is helpful to build trust.
   

Please write 2 pages of actionable feedback utilizing the above guidelines on this poem/poet: 

Poet Bio (fake)

Dirth Mabi is a candidate for a Masters in Fine Arts from Southern West University. Their work has been published in American Journal of Poetry, SWWIM, Sycamore Review, and 3Elements Review. They live with their partner and three legged cat in the desert of Southern California.

Poem: 

Becoming flat

When the world crumbles,

you will become flat
 

like the front end of your uncle’s BMW

hanging silver in the fog—

like the coffee-ring

left over on the table

by the scarred-face woman

clicking out the doors,

or her beige briefcase, suspiciously heavy—
 

like when your mom’s sister died

the fridge swelling with protein shakes

and you’d catch your mom standing in the mirror

not making eye contact but looking for something

on her naked stomach—

like the blinking cursor in the gray box

as your new friend with metal in her lip

spells out words you never heard aloud before—

flat like the sounds your bedroom walls make

when your mom’s Volvo

and your Dad’s pickup

are sharing the garage

and you know your Pop tart

is getting cold downstairs.

 We have a problem in publishing. The 2019 Diversity in Publishing survey found that on average almost 80% of people shaping the publishing industry are white. When this was published, that statistic had not shifted significantly for years. This reality perpetuates the systematic exclusion of historically marginalized writers that will not change unless those with literary platforms and thus some degree of power actively strive to change it.

Toward that end, we at Frontier are offering this space as an opportunity for Black writers, Indigenous writers, and writers of color (BIPOC) to get fast results on their submissions. We'll do our best to get you a decision on your poetry within two to four weeks. Your voice is valued here, and we welcome your work.

These submissions will be considered for our New Voices poetry category.
 

Guidelines

• Submissions are open internationally for historically marginalized BIPOC writers only.
• Submissions are open to new and emerging poets with no more than one full-length published work forthcoming at the time of submission—email us about self-published works)
• We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note via Submittable if your work is picked up elsewhere (we want to say congrats!)
• All submissions must be no more than ten pages and no more than five poems.
• We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history, if any.
• Expect two to four weeks for a response.
• Publication in our New Voices category includes a payment of $50 per poem.
• Please review our FAQ page for more information. Almost all other questions are answered here: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq
   

Submissions for our New Voices poetry category are open year round to any new and emerging poet who has not published more than one full-length collection of poetry. New Voices are published online only and will feature a number of poems from new authors each month.

We are thrilled to offer significant payment to our partner poets: $50 per poem, up to $150. We are proud to be paying for  published pieces but will be highly selective in our choices for  publication.

We also warmly invite under-represented and marginalized voices to submit. Our aim is to be an accurate representation of the diversity of our beautiful community. Your voice is valued here.

Guidelines

• Submissions are open to new and emerging poets only  (no more than two full-length published works forthcoming at the time of submission—email us about self-published works)
• We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere (We want to say congrats!)
• All submissions must be no more than ten pages and no more than five poems.
• We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
• Please include a cover letter with your publication history
• Expect six to eight weeks for a response
• Please review our FAQ page for more information. Almost all other questions are answered here: www.frontierpoetry.com/faq

Editorial Feedback Option

This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on a poem of your choice from the submission, including suggestions for future submissions. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee (at EFA rates) and are all incredibly astute and professional poets. Please note, the time frame for Ed Letters is eight to twelve weeks from the time of submission.