The Yale Series of Younger Poets champions the most promising new American poets. Awarded since 1919, the Yale Younger Poets prize is the oldest annual literary award in the United States. Past winners include Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, William Meredith, W.S. Merwin, John Ashbery, John Hollander, James Tate, and Carolyn Forché. Louise Glück was the judge of the Series from 2003-2010, and Carl Phillips will be succeeding her as the new judge starting with the 2011 competition.

The winner of the 2011 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, the first selection chosen by judge Carl Phillips, is Eduardo C. Corral's Border with Violin. Eduardo C. Corral is a CantoMundo fellow. He's a graduate of Arizona State University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His work has appeared in The Nation, New England Review, and Ploughshares. He lives in southern Arizona.

IMPORTANT NOTE: New submission dates below.

Submissions for the 2012 Competition must be postmarked no earlier than October 1, 2011 and no later than November 15, 2011. See Guidelines for Submission below for precise information regarding your entry.

Rules Governing the Competition

Each year, Yale University Press seeks one book-length poetry manuscript to be published in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. The competition is open to any American citizen under forty years of age who has not published a book of poetry (contestants must be under the age of forty at the time they submit the manuscript to the competition). The winner receives royalties when the book is published.

All poems must be original - translations are not accepted. Writers who have had chapbooks of poetry printed in editions of no more than 300 copies are eligible. Only one manuscript may be submitted each year. Manuscripts submitted in previous years may be resubmitted.

There is no application form. Please follow these guidelines in preparing your manuscript:

1. The manuscript must be a minimum of 48 numbered pages and a maximum of 64 numbered pages in length. All manuscripts must be paginated. Each new poem must start a new page. Manuscripts must be printed single-sided.

2. The manuscript must begin with unnumbered frontmatter: a title page that shows the book's title and your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address (if you have one), and page count; a second title page which lists the title of the collection only; a table of contents; and (if applicable) a list of acknowledgments.

3. Begin paginating the manuscript after the frontmatter. If your book is divided into parts or has an epigraph, Page 1 will be the first part title or the epigraph. Otherwise, Page 1 will be the first poem.

4. In formatting the manuscript, please make legibility your first concern. If you use a word processor, select a standard typeface (such as Bodoni, Garamond, or Times New Roman) in at least 10-point type. Manuscripts may be single-spaced, double-spaced, or 1.5 spaced. Manuscripts may be prepared on a typewriter instead of a word processor. Handwritten manuscripts will not be accepted.

5. A brief biography may appear at the end of the manuscript. The information is not required and, if submitted, need not be included in the page count.

6. Do not bind or staple the manuscript. Place the loose sheets in a plain envelope of appropriate size.

Send the manuscript to Yale Series of Younger Poets, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040. Include a check or money order for $20.00 made out to Yale University Press. Please do not send cash.

Submissions for the 2012 competition must be postmarked no earlier than October 1, 2011 and no later than November 15, 2011.

Do not send the only copy of your work. Manuscripts cannot be returned after the competition. If you wish receipt of your manuscript to be acknowledged, please include a stamped, self-addressed postcard. If you wish to be informed by July 2012 of the contest results, please include an email address on your title page.