Announcing The Big Sur Prize in Poetry

by Daniel Bosch

The Big Sur Prize in Poetry honors the astonishing natural beauty of coastal central California, muse to artists such as Robinson Jeffers, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Carl Djerassi and Clint Eastwood. The winner of the 2016 Big Sur Prize in Poetry will be awarded electronic publication of the winning manuscript of poems and a check made out for $200,000.

Entries for the Big Sur Prize in Poetry will be accepted twenty-four hours a day via our online submission manager, live now at B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com.

Guidelines:

Writers may enter any number of manuscripts of original poetry in any language, or poetry in translation from any language into any other language, or original versions of other writer’s poems. Manuscripts may be of any length. The judges of the Big Sur Prize in Poetry encourage submissions from poets who live anywhere in the world, and who may be at any point in their careers, especially poets who feel they have not yet received the recognition they deserve.

Manuscripts may be typed (fair carbon copies are permissible); or printed in laser, ink-jet, or dot-matrix; or hand-written in pencil, ink, charcoal, or crayon; or shot in video of no more than five hours total viewing time (for work in American Sign Language only); or they may be presented as a single Twitter feed of any length; or tattooed on the body of the poet or on the body of another living manuscript (see our Submission Manager at B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com for details). Manuscripts with Emoji supplements are welcome.

The writer’s name may appear freely throughout the manuscript. Writers who wish to remain anonymous may do so for a fee of $75 US by clicking through to our anonymous entry form at B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com.

Entry Fee:

An entry fee of $100 US must accompany each manuscript. Writers are strongly encouraged to pay the submission fee via secure electronic means (e.g. online bank account, credit card, debit card, Paypal, or Google Wallet).

Deadlines:

Manuscripts must be received by midnight, March 31, 2016.

Late manuscripts accompanied by a late fee of $150 US (see B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com for details) will be accepted through midnight December 31, 2016.

Very late manuscripts accompanied by a very late fee of $250 US will be accepted until the end of time (see B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com for details).

Our Principles Regarding Fairness and Open Submission:

With the exception of those manuscripts eligible for Golden Circle consideration, all submissions to the B.S. Prize in Poetry will receive absolutely equal and fair consideration.

The friends and spouses, and former and future friends and spouses, and the children, grandchildren and former children, and their babysitters and former and future babysitters, as well as the former and future students of the judges and administrators of the B. S. Prize in Poetry are encouraged to enter the B.S. Prize in Poetry competition. The judges of the B.S. Prize in Poetry encourage relatives and survivors of incapacitated or recently deceased poets to submit manuscripts on behalf of their loved ones. (Limit five years from date of issue of death certificate or transfer of power of attorney; see B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com for details.)

The Golden Circle of Consideration:

Writers who submit more than ten manuscripts will be inducted into the B.S. Prize in Poetry’s Golden Circle of manuscript consideration. The judges will spend twice the average consideration time with manuscripts submitted by Golden Circle inductees. In addition, one original haiku composed by one of the judges in response to one of the poems in one of the manuscripts submitted by each Golden Circle inductee will be posted to our Twitter feed @B.S.Poetry.

Changes to Manuscripts:

Any number of changes to submitted manuscripts will be accepted at any time at B.S.Prize.Helvetia.Bank.com, for a revision fee of $50 US per letter, line-break, or punctuation mark.

Submissions by Postal Mail:

Writers for whom electronic submission of a manuscript is a hardship or who wish to pay their submission fees by money order, bank check, postal money order, or cash should send their submissions to: P.O. Box 3141592, Big Sur, CA, 93920. The B.S. Prize in Poetry regrets that personal checks will not be accepted for payment of submission fees, late fees, or revision fees.

The B.S. Prize’s Commitment to Quality:

The judges and administrators of The Big Sur Prize in Poetry reserve the right to decline to award the B.S. Prize should no submission be deemed worthy.