The Academy of American Poets Prize
Since 1979, Binghamton's Creative Writing Program has participated in the annual Academy of American Poets' University & College Poetry Prize. This contest is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Each year, one graduate and one undergraduate poet will have poems advanced to the national contest. If either of the winning poets is 23 or younger, they will also be considered for the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, with a monetary prize of $1000.
Guidelines for our 2025 prize will be announced during the Spring 2025 semester. Check back later for details!
Eligibility
The competition is open to all current graduate and undergraduate students at Binghamton University.
2024 Winners
Derek Ellis (graduate) for “Rehearsing the Death of My Father” and Gregory Stanskiy (undergraduate) for “Modernity.” Honorable mentions include Shannon Hearn (graduate) for “What Marriage Is/Tender Care” and Aidan Raudenbush (undergraduate) for “AP Statistics.”
Recent Winners:
2023: AJ White (graduate) for “Semiprecious” and Elizabeth Plantin (undergraduate), “195th Street”
2021: Hannah Nathanson (undergraduate) for “Tough Girl” and Cole Depuy (graduate), for “Clot.“ Honorable Mentions went to Kaye Crawford (graduate) for “Mythobiographic Imaginorigin”
and Madeline Timerman for “Nursery Rhyme for a Lonely Moon.”
Submission of Work
- Submissions can include up to three poems, and should not exceed 5 pages in total. Each poet can submit only once annually. Previously published poems are acceptable. This information does not need to be included in the original submission, but if the program selects a poem as the winner, the publication information should be noted on the file we send on to the Academy.
- Poets should save their submissions as a one-to-five page Word document (a .doc or .docx file) with a title consisting of the writer's initials and "academyPrize2023." (For instance, if a poet's name is Charles Nelson Reilly, the file name should be "CNRacademyPrize2023.docx.") The poems will go into a composite file before the judge reads them, so this titling scheme will not compromise the poets' anonymity. The poet's name should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript.
- Submissions should be emailed to cwpro@binghamton.edu by TBA 2025. The subject heading should read "ACADEMY PRIZE SUBMISSION," and the body of the
email should include the following information:
- The poet's name
- Age (specifically whether they are above or below 23, to determine eligibility for the Most Promising Young Poets Award)
- Whether the poet is a graduate or undergraduate student
- Mailing address
- Contact phone number
- Email address
- A list of the title(s) of the poem(s) included in the submission.
- Poets may also note in the body of the email if their submissions have been published, but that information should not be in the attached file itself.
