2010 Poetry Prize Rules

Summary: Flatmancrooked will award to the first place poem under 500 words the following: The designation of 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize recipient, $500.00, print publication in the succeeding Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, online featured publication, and a first edition of Flatmancrooked’s Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, hereafter referred to as the Flatmancrooked Poetry Anthology, in which the poem appears.

Flatmancrooked will award to the second place poem under 500 words the following: The designation of second place for the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize, $300.00, print publication in the succeeding Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, online featured publication, and a first edition of the Flatmancrooked Poetry Anthology in which the poem appears.

Flatmancrooked will award to the third place poem under 500 words the following: The designation of third place for the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize, $100.00, print publication in the succeeding Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, online featured publication, and a first edition of the Flatmancrooked Poetry Anthology in which the poem appears.

Flatmancrooked will award to ten additional poems under 500 words the following: The designation of 2009 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize finalist, print publication in the succeeding Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, online featured publication, and a first edition of the Flatmancrooked Poetry Anthology in which the poem appears.

The guest judge, Mary Karr, will choose the first, second, and third place winners from the ten finalists. The ten finalists and twenty semi-finalists will be determined by the Flatmancrooked editorial staff. The entry deadline is 12:00 AM, January 31st, 2010, and the entry fee is $5 for a single entry and $10 for a triple entry. Flatmancrooked reserves the right to offer or retract any of the various entry offers at any time during the contest. Winners will be notified by March 15th, 2010.

All entrants will receive a complimentary ebook copy of Flatmancrooked’s Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry, to be released in 2010.

RULES and GUIDELINES:

Entries must be submitted via the online form between now and midnight (PST) on January 31st, 2010. Paper entries will not be read, only recycled.

Payment must be submitted via Flatmancrooked’s PayPal gateway, found at www.flatmancrooked.com/prize, prior to any entry being submitted. All entries will be cross-referenced against payment records. Those submissions not accompanied by payment are automatically deleted.

A writer may submit as many pieces as he or she would like. Each submission includes an ebook of Flatmancrooked’s Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetry.

Entries must be original, primarily in English, previously unpublished and unawarded, and not accepted by any other venue at time of submission or at any other point during which the contest is open.

Flatmancrooked staff, interns, volunteers, board members, and immediate family members of the aforementioned are not eligible to enter this contest.

Winners will be notified via email. If you don’t hear back by March 15th, 2010, most unfortunately, you didn’t win.

At least 220 entrants must participate by the contest deadline or the contest is void. Entry fees will be refunded minus $0.80 for portal processing.

Flatmancrooked retains first-time print and electronic publishing rights and reserves the right of first refusal. After publication, all rights revert to the author.

All entries will be read by the Flatmancrooked editorial staff. The top three poems and the first place poem will be selected by our guest judge.

Submissions are not limited to any particular theme, genre, or style. If your poem is format specific, it is advisable to submit it via RTF file upload rather than the copy and paste method. In the event your poem should be published, the editors and designers will make every effort to uphold your format and/or the spirit of your formatting within the confines of the book’s design space.

Flatmancrooked reserves the right to cancel the prize at any time, in which case all monies shall be refunded to entrants. Flatmancrooked may also extend or shorten the prize deadline as it so chooses. Any changes to the deadline shall be advertised on www.flatmancrooked.com.