James Applewhite Poetry Prize

The 2024 Final Judge is Jessica Jacobs.

1st prize is $250, publication in NCLR, and a Pushcart Prize nomination.

Finalists will also be considered for publication in NCLR and NCLR Online, and poets will receive $25–$100.

The James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition is open to any writer who fits the NCLR definition of a North Carolina writer: anyone who currently lives in North Carolina, has lived in North Carolina, or uses North Carolina as subject matter. Poetry submissions do NOT have to relate to an issue’s special feature topic.

• We have dropped the submission fee, but poets must be NCLR subscribers to submit:
  • With a one-year subscription, poets may submit 1-3 poems.
  • With a two-year subscription, poets may submit 4-5 poems.
  • If you are not already a subscriber, you may subscribe after you submit.
  • Current members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association may submit up to 6 poems at no additional cost since a subscription to NCLR is already part of your membership. (Funding for this competition comes from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association’s contribution to NCLR’s budget.)
• We do not have any line restrictions, though have rarely published a poem of longer than 3 pages of our layout.

• Submit poems electronically via Submittable before midnight April 30.
  • Find instructions for using Submittable on our Submit Online page.
  • To facilitate blind review of your poetry, do not include your name within your Word/.rtf files.
  • Complete submission directions are provided within our Submittable site, including instructions to upload poems in separate files within a single submission.
• Previously unpublished submissions only.
  • Published means the work has appeared for public consumption in any form, including on blogs and social media.
• Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please notify us immediately if a poem submitted has been accepted for publication elsewhere. It will be withdrawn from the prize competition.

NCLR Poetry Editor Jeffrey Franklin will select poems to be published in the next year’s issues from the submissions to this competition.

• Read an interview with our poetry editor in NCLR 2007.
• Find our poetry editor’s tips “about the poetic line” here.

The final judge will choose the winning poem and other honorees from these finalists.

• All who submit will receive notification of the competition results via Submittable within 3-4 months of the deadline, and a press release will be posted on the NCLR website and in social media, as well as sent out to the media.
• The winning poem and select finalists will be published in the following year’s issues of the North Carolina Literary Review.
  • The authors of the poems published in the print issue will receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their poem(s) appear(s), in addition to their subscription issue.
  • The authors of the poems published in the online issues will be notified when the issue featuring their poems is released.