​​​​​​​​​​The 2021 Laux/Millar RR Poetry Prize Guidelines

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​JUDGING

• ENTRY FEE: $15 USD, which includes a free copy of the Fall 2021 issue.
  
• The Raleigh Review poetry staff will serve as preliminary judges.
  
• The judges of the finalists will be Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar. 

PRIZES

• First Prize includes $500 USD and publication in the Fall 2021 issue.
  
• Finalists will receive standard $15 payment along with publication.
  
• Honorable Mentions will be considered for publication and standard payment.
  
• All Finalists and Honorable Mentions will receive a 2-year subscription to Raleigh Review.
  
• All entrants will receive the Fall 2021 issue of Raleigh Review.
• International winners, those based outside the US, will receive payment
  in copies of Raleigh Review.

GUIDELINES:

• Opens on January 1, 2021.
  
• Deadline is June 1, 2021 at midnight EST.
  
• Submit up to five pages of unpublished poems per entry.
  
• Entries are only accepted via Submittable.
  
• Attached files should be free of personal identifiers such as name, address, phone and email, social media handles, etc. 
  
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. If one or more poems is selected for publication by another magazine, please leave a note on your submission via Submittable.
  
• Failure to meet guidelines may result in disqualification.
  
• Current students or affiliates of Raleigh Review editorial staff and Raleigh Review board members are not eligible to enter. 
  
• This contest is open to poets who reside in the USA (regardless of immigration status).
• Beginning in 2021, those outside the USA are most welcome to submit to this prize though payment for any winners who happen to be based outside the USA will be in copies of Raleigh Review since we are not permitted to mail checks outside our own country.

​Selected by Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar (2020)

Winner:
"And it Don't Stop" by Darius Simpson 

Finalists:
"One Way Sunset" by Alaina Bainbridge
"Haystacks" by Kabel Mishka Ligot
"What I Tell Myself" by Cameron McGill
"Last Call" by Darius Simpson

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​Selected by Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar (2019)

Winner:

"Iguana Iguana" by Caylin Capra-Thomas

"We love "iguana, Iguana".  What a glorious ride. We love her use of the "controlling image."  Every time we think she's making a leap away from the iguana, she returns to it with a vengeance.  This poem goes so many places, has so much humor and humanity, so much muchness and toughness and tenderness and forgiveness.  Of everything and everyone.  Jim and Sylvester and William, no-see-ums and mothers, good and bad boyfriends, stray cats and dead birds, dancing pecs and death. Damn, we're impressed." -Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar

Finalists:
"At the Bar" by Cameron McGill
"The Land in Both Our Names" by Suzanne Grove
"After Watching The Quiet Man" by Hannah Dow
​"Sertraline" by Emily Nason

Selected by Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar (2018)

Winner:
"Forever Daylight" by John Sibley Williams

Honorable Mentions:
"Four Sonnets" by Bailey Cohen [2nd]

"Lightning Flowers" by Emily Mohn-Slate [3rd]

Finalists:
"Other women don't tell you" by Julia Dasbach
"Keloid Scar" by Julia Dasbach
"Sometimes I Pretend the Daughter I Wanted Was Born Alive" by Chelsea Dingman
"After You Have Gone" by Chelsea Dingman

Selected by Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar (2017)

Winner:
"Poem for My Unborn Daughter" by Kristin Robertson

Honorable Mention:
"All Is Wild, All Is Silent" by Jenna Bazzell

Finalists:
"Reasons to Return Home" by Emily Paige Wilson
"How Not to Remember Your Mother" by Emily Rose Cole
"The Speaker's Prayer" by Jenna Bazzell 
"Erratic transcription of notes taken at a refugee camp in Anse-A-Pitre, Haiti." by Mario Ariza