The Anzaldúa Poetry Prize
The Anzaldúa Poetry Prize
Deadline: March 16, 2025 Award: First place is publication, $1,000 prize, 25 contributor copies, and royalties contract. Four finalists will be announced. Reading Fee: $25
History:
After a brief hiatus, the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize will debut in its new home with FlowerSong Press in 2025.
Originally founded by Newfound Inc. in 2014, the prize proudly honors queer Chicana poet, writer, philosopher, theorist and cultural icon Gloria E. Anzaldúa. She is well known for her book of prose and poetry, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” a revolutionary and inspirational work that has influenced countless writers, activists, and others, which draws on her experience as a Chicana/Tejana/lesbian/feminist en la frontera
The Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize is awarded annually to a full-length collection that embodies or is in conversation with Anzaldúa's legacy. We welcome submissions from all poets whose work aligns with the mission of FlowerSong Press. Submissions written in hybrid forms that exhibit multiple vectors of discovery are especially encouraged.
Why am I compelled to write? Because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. …Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and hunger. I write to record what others erase when I speak, to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about me, about you. To become more intimate with myself and you. …To dispel the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit. …Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing. —Gloria E. Anzaldúa, “Speaking in Tongues”
Guidelines
Send at least 50 pages of poetry. There is no maximum page limit. Visual art may be included but must be in black and white. Please include no more than one poem per page.
The author's name must not appear anywhere in the manuscript.
Please include a title page and table of contents. Manuscript pages should be numbered.
Manuscripts may include a dedication and acknowledgements page as long as the author's identity is not discernible.
Simultaneous submissions and submissions that contain previously published individual poems are acceptable. Please notify us immediately if your collection has been accepted elsewhere by emailing editor@flowersongpress.com.
All entries must be sent online via our submission manager and be contained in a single document.
A non-refundable $25 reading fee must accompany your work. If the reading fee is prohibitive, email us before submitting at editor@flowesongpress.com. We are able to offer several fee waivers. In your email, please provide a brief reason for your waiver request.
Students (past and present), relatives, and close friends of the editors and judges are ineligible.
Deadline
The deadline is March 16, 2025, 11:59 PM, Central daylight time.
Prize Details
The winner will receive a prize of $1,000 plus 25 copies of the published manuscript. The author will have the opportunity to purchase additional copies at a discount.
The author will receive a royalties contract (25% print/50% digital).
FlowerSong will design, print, and distribute the collection. The cover will be decided in cooperation with the winning author. FlowerSong's catalog includes award-winning poetry, fiction, and graphic novels.
All finalists will be announced in summer 2025. Publication is expected in late 2025.
Due to the number of submissions received, personalized feedback is not possible. Authors will receive acknowledgment of receipt and decision.
Judging and Selection Process
A small panel of FlowerSong editors will carefully read and discuss all submissions. They will designate five submissions as finalists. One collection will be designated as the prize winner. All finalists will be considered for publication.
Selection Panel
Rodney Gomez
Rodney Gomez was the inaugural winner of the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize in 2014. His chapbook Spine was selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. His books include Arsenal with Praise Song (Orison Books, 2021), recipient of the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for best book of poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and Geographic Tongue (Pleiades Press, 2020), winner of Pleiades Press Visual Poetry Series. His other honors include an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, a Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellowship from Yale, and a De Groot Foundation grant. He serves as advisory editor for FlowerSong Press, where he founded the Bougainvillea Prize to honor working class poets or collections for/about the working class. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rodney-gomez https://poets.org/poet/rodney-gomez
Edward Vidaurre
Edward Vidaurre is an award-winning poet and author of nine collections of poetry. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate, 2022 inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters, and publisher of FlowerSong Press. His writings have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Texas Observer, Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as other journals and anthologies.
Priscilla Celina “Lina” Suárez
Priscilla Celina “Lina” Suárez is a pocha Tejana writer and poet straight outta the Rio Grande Valley, where she was born and raised on the borderlands of South Texas. Back when Las Milpas, TX was still a colonia, she grew up listening to her wela’s cuentos – tales packed with history, folklore, and the tunes of her cultura. Those stories shaped her spirit and voice, now shared in her debut collection, La La Landia: A Journey Through My Frontera CD Shuffle, which hit the shelves in April 2022, released by FlowerSong Press. This book danced its way to the finals for the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry. Priscilla Celina Suárez