The 2025 49th Parallel Award for Poetry
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Please read guidelines before submitting:
Bellingham Review's annual writing contests are open from February 1st to March 15th.
$1,000 first-place prizes will be awarded in poetry (49th Parallel Award), fiction (Tobias Wolff Award), and creative nonfiction (Annie Dillard Award).
Through Submittable, please submit 1-3 poems. All entries will be considered for publication in the journal.
$15 entry fee.
Important notes:
* The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Manuscripts including identifying information will be disqualified.
* We only consider previously unpublished work.
* Simultaneous submissions are encouraged; please let us know if you work has been accepted elsewhere by withdrawing your submission.
Our guest judge for 2025 is Gabrielle Bates
Gabrielle Bates is the author of Judas Goat (Tin House, 2023), an NPR Best Book of 2023, a New York Times Book Review Critics Pick, and finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Poetry. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she currently lives in Seattle, where she works for Open Books: A Poem Emporium and co-hosts the podcast The Poet Salon. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Ploughshares, Best American Experimental Writing, and elsewhere, and she has served as visiting faculty for a variety of universities, arts organizations, and museums, including the University of Washington Rome Center and the Tin House Writers' Workshops.
Thank you and we look forward to reading!