Changes Book Prize

Established in 2022, the Changes Book Prize awards $10,000 and publication for a first or second collection of poems. In addition to the cash prize, winners receive a fairer-than-standard publishing contract, national distribution, extensive advertising and publicity, and a NYC launch event for their book. In its first two years the prize was judged by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück. Click here to read about last year’s winners and finalists. This year’s winning manuscript will be selected by Eileen Myles.


Submissions open Sept 1 – Nov 1, 2023

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2024 Judge: Eileen Myles


Eileen Myles (b. 1949, they/them) is a poet, novelist and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has made them one of the most recognized writers of their generation.

Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 22. Their newest collection of poems, a “Working Life”, is out now. Their fiction includes Chelsea Girls (1994) which just won France’s Inrockuptibles Prize for best foreign novel, Cool for You (2000), Inferno (a poet’s novel) (2010) and Afterglow (2017). Writing on art was gathered in the volume The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art (2009). Books of poetry include Evolution (2018) and I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975-2014.

Eileen Myles has received a Guggenheim, a Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers grant, 3 Lambda Book Awards and a “Pioneer” lifetime achievement award, the Shelley Prize from the PSA, and an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In 2016, they received a Creative Capital grant and the Clark Prize for excellence in art writing. In 2019 they received a poetry award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. In 2020 they got the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle and in 2022 was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Letters. They live in New York & in Marfa, TX.


First readers: Bennet Bergman, Ama Birch, Kyle Dacuyan, Kay Gabriel, Sophie Robinson



Contest Guidelines


Eligibility

  1. The Changes Book Prize is open to residents of the United States who have not published (or committed to publishing) more than one book-length collection of poetry with a registered ISBN.
  2. Submissions for the 2024 competition must be submitted no earlier than September 1, 2023 and no later than November 1, 2023 at 11:59 pm EST.
  3. Current or former students, colleagues, employees, family members, and close friends of the judge are not eligible for the prize.

Standards & Commitments

  1. From year to year, The Changes Book Prize book series aims to reflect the variousness of what is possible in poetry. To that end, we are committed to publishing work from the widest possible range of practices and perspectives.
  2. Criteria for selecting a winning manuscript are broad; the judge and first readers do not screen submissions with a preference for any particular “style” or type of poetry, and emphatically are not looking for work that bears an affinity to their own.
  3. The Changes Book Prize is administered in accordance with the Code of Ethics developed by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). The judge will use an anonymous review process to select the winning manuscript.

Submission Guidelines

  1. Submissions must be original poetry manuscripts written in the English language. Poems published in print or online periodicals, anthologies, or chapbooks may be included, but the manuscript itself must be unpublished. Translations and works by multiple authors are not accepted.
  2. Manuscripts must be a minimum of 48 numbered pages and a maximum of 80 numbered pages in length, including the title page and table of contents. All manuscripts must be paginated. Each new poem must start on a new page.
  3. Manuscripts should be formatted using a standard typeface in 12-point font. Manuscripts may be single-spaced, 1.5-spaced, or double-spaced.
  4. Upload your manuscript as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. Include a title page with the title only and a table of contents. Author’s name should not appear on any pages within the uploaded document.
  5. Where indicated on Submittable, include a brief bio (no more than 200 words) and a list of acknowledgments of previously published poems. Do not include acknowledgements, biographical information, or any other cover letter within the document of the manuscript.
  6. Submitting more than one manuscript to the prize is not allowed. Manuscripts that do not adhere to submission guidelines will not be considered.
  7. Revisions or corrections are not permitted once your manuscript has been submitted. The prizewinner will have an opportunity to edit their manuscript prior to publication.
  8. You may simultaneously submit your manuscript elsewhere, but please notify us immediately if it is accepted for publication.
  9. The Changes Book Prize reserves the right of the judge to not choose a winner for any given year of the competition.






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“As Variously As Possible” “As Variously As Possible”