The deadline is just around the corner for this year’s Auburn Witness Poetry Prize. Named for the late poet Jake Adam York and sponsored by Southern Humanities Review, the prize is given annually for a “poem of witness.” The winner of the prize will receive $1,000 and publication in Southern Humanities Review, as well as travel expenses to give a reading at Auburn University in October. This year’s judge is Paisley Rekdal.
Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems with an entry fee of $15 by May 8. The entry fee includes a copy of the magazine. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
The Auburn Witness Poetry Prize was established after Jake Adam York’s untimely death in 2012. York, an alumni of Auburn University whose writing flourished during his time as a student, “went on to write poems that, with both love and anguish, examined race relations in the South, celebrating the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement and questioning, as a native son of the South, his own complicity in its tragedies.” The award celebrates this work and his legacy. Previous winners of the prize include Teresa Dzieglewicz, Amanda Gunn, and Laura Sobbott Ross.