Third Annual Poetry Prize Open for Submissions

The third annual First Things Poetry Prize is now open for submissions. Started in 2024, the prize has quickly become one of the most prestigious awards for short, formally accomplished work.

Poems should be previously unpublished, not under consideration elsewhere, and no more than forty lines. Each entrant may submit up to two poems using the online form. Submissions must be received by June 30, 2026. The winners will be announced in August and will receive awards of $2,000 and $1,000 respectively upon publication in the October issue of First Things.

James Matthew Wilson will serve as this year’s outside judge. Wilson is the Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature and the founding director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Saint Thomas. He is the author of sixteen books. His most recent collection of poetry is Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024). He is a Hiett Prize (2017) and Parnassus Prize (2022) winner, and he has twice been awarded the Lionel Basney Prize by the Conference on Christianity and Literature. 

First Things has published poetry in its pages from the beginning, and we are pleased to continue our longstanding support of the art of poetry thanks in part to the Tim and Judy Rudderow Foundation.