Richard-Gabriel Rummonds
Poetry Contest

About the Prize

The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize awards $2,000 and publication by Ex Ophidia Press to the author of a collection of poems. The winning poet will receive ten copies of the book, a publishing contract with national distribution, publicity, and a discount on book purchases. Poet Felicia Zamora will select the 2025 winning manuscript and nine finalists.

About Our Judge

Felicia Zamora is the author of eight books of poetry including, Murmuration Archives, forthcoming in 2026 Akrílika Series from Noemi Press, Interstitial Archaeology, forthcoming in 2025 from the Wisconsin Poetry Series, Quotient (2022), I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the 2020 Iowa Poetry Prize (2021) and the 2022 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, Body of Render, Benjamin Saltman Award winner (2020), and Of Form & Gather, Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize winner (2017). She won the 2022 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize from The Georgia Review, a 2022 Tin House Next Book Residency, and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2024 and 2022. Her writing appears in Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, The American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry 2022, Boston Review, Brevity, Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, Lit Hub, The Missouri Review, Orion, Poetry Magazine, The Nation, West Branch, and others. She is an associate professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati, a poetry editor for the Colorado Review, and a contributing editor for West Branch.

Eligibility

1. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize is open to all authors writing in English who reside in the United States. We do not publish international authors.
2. Entrants must be at least 18 years old.
3. Manuscripts must be submitted via Submittable in the following submission window – May 1, 2025, to September 15, 2025, at 11:59 PM CST.
4. Current or former students, colleagues, employees, family members and close friends of the judge are not eligible for the prize.

Standards and Commitments

1. The mission of the press is to publish English language poetry that explores new territories of the imagination by using traditional techniques of poetry: rhythm and melody, imagery and metaphor, irony and insight, apt language for important ideas. We intend for our books to mirror this mission.
2. Translations, collaborative work, or AI generated work is not eligible for this contest.
3. By entering the contest, the author confirms that the work is their own.
4. The judge and first readers do not screen submissions with a preference for any style or type of poetry. Please remember that a 9 x 6-inch book publication restricts the format of the poems, so lines regularly longer than four inches, concrete poems, experimental formats or graphics may regrettably disqualify a manuscript for purely technical reasons.
5. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize is administered in accordance with the Code of Ethics developed by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). The judge and first readers will use an anonymous review process to select the winning manuscript.

Please read and follow the instructions for the work you are submitting. We cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines exactly.

Submission Guidelines

1. Submissions must be original poetry manuscripts in English language (although it is acceptable to include some text in other languages). Poems published in print or online periodicals, anthologies, or chapbooks may be included, but the manuscript itself must be unpublished.
2. If you include quotes from other works in your manuscript, please be sure they are clearly attributed to the author(s) in a “Notes” section at the back of the manuscript.
3. Manuscripts must consist of from 50 to 100 numbered pages, including a title page and table of contents. All manuscripts must be paginated. Each new poem must start on a new page.
4. Manuscripts should be formatted using a standard typeface in 12-point font. Manuscripts may be single-spaced or 1.5 spaced.
5. Upload your manuscript electronically via Submittable as a .doc, .docx file. Hard copies will not be considered. Include a title page with the title only and a table of contents. The author’s name should not appear on any pages of the uploaded document.
6. Where indicated on Submittable, include a brief bio and a list of acknowledgements of previously published poems in the manuscript. Do not include acknowledgements, biographical information, or any other cover letter within the manuscript.
7. Submitting more than one manuscript to the prize is not allowed.
8. Revision or correction are not permitted once your manuscript has been submitted. The prizewinner will have an opportunity to edit their manuscript prior to publication.
9. You may simultaneously submit your manuscript elsewhere, but please notify us immediately if it is accepted for publication.
10. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the submission guidelines will not be considered.
11. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize reserves the right of the judge to not choose a winner for any given year of the competition.