Call For Submissions: Second Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize

The Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize is awarded annually to an unpublished manuscript of original Anglophone poetry by an author of Asian heritage residing anywhere in the world.

The winner receives book publication and USD1,000.00.

The prize judge is the poet, essayist, and critic Vijay Seshadri. Born in India, Vijay came to the USA at the age of five. He is the author of Wild Kingdom (1996); The Long Meadow (2003), which won the James Laughlin Award; and 3 Sections (2013), which won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He has worked as an editor at the New Yorker and currently directs the graduate non-fiction writing program at Sarah Lawrence College.

Five finalists will be announced in July 2019, and the prizewinner in August 2019. The winning manuscript will be published in Spring 2020 by Gaudy Boy, an imprint of the NYC-based literary nonprofit Singapore Unbound.

Established in 2017, Gaudy Boy publishes poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction of extraordinary merit by Asian voices. Our name is taken from the poem “Gaudy Turnout” by Singaporean poet Arthur Yap about his time abroad in 1970s Leeds, UK. From the Latin “gaudium,” meaning joy, Gaudy Boy seeks to delight our readers with the various powers of art.

Guidelines

1.     The contest is open to emerging and established poets.

2.     No proof of Asian heritage is required. As writers ourselves, we go by honor between writers.

3.     Submit a 50–100-page unpublished manuscript of original poetry in English. Please number the pages of your manuscript. Include a title page, table of contents, and an acknowledgments page for any previously published poems.

4.     Email Jee Leong Koh at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org with a brief cover letter in the body of your email and the poetry manuscript attached in PDF or MSWord format.

5.     Your name, mailing address, and email address should not appear anywhere in the manuscript. Instead, they should be given in your cover letter in the body of your email.

6.     Submit your entry fee USD10.00 at PayPal to Jee Leong Koh (jkoh@singaporeunbound.org). We cannot consider your manuscript until we receive your entry fee. Your entry fee helps us defray some, but not all, of the editorial costs. We have set the entry fee low so it will not be too much of a barrier for most people. Entry fees are nonrefundable.

7.     You may submit more than one manuscript, but a separate entry fee must accompany each manuscript.

8.     You may submit the manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but you must notify Gaudy Boy immediately if your manuscript is accepted by another publisher.

For more information, click here.