The William Matthews Poetry Prize

**Update: The deadline for The 2012 William Matthews Poetry Prize has been extended to February 1st.**

Every year from July 15 through January 15, Asheville Poetry Review will accept entries for The William Matthews Poetry Prize.

First Prize: $1,000, publication in Asheville Poetry Review, and a featured reading at the nationally acclaimed Wordfest Literary Festival
Second Prize: $250, publication, and a featured reading at Wordfest
Third Prize: Publication and a featured reading at Wordfest

Final Judge for 2012: David Wagoner

The final judging process will be “blind” (all identifying information will be removed from the poems).

All submissions will be considered for publication.

Postmark Deadline: January 15 of each year.

Send 1-3 poems, any style, any theme, any length, with a $20 entry fee (payable to Asheville Poetry Review) to:

William Matthews Poetry Prize
c/o Asheville Poetry Review
PO Box 7086
Asheville, NC 28802

Winners of the 2011 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Michael White, “The Milkmaid”
Second Place: Bruce Bond, “Jon Faddis and the High Note”
Third Place: Mary Makofske, “Museum of Torture, San Gimignano, Italy”
(Judge: Sebastian Matthews)

Michael White

White was educated at the University of Missouri and the University of Utah, where he received his PhD. His most recent books are Palma Cathedral, which won the Colorado Prize, and Re-entry, which won the Vassar Miller Prize. His poetry and nonfiction have been published in magazines and anthologies including The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and Best American Poetry. White has received fellowships from the NEA and the North Carolina Arts Council, among other awards. He teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Bruce Bond

Bond’s collections of poetry include The Visible (LSU, forthcoming), Peal (Etruscan, 2009), Blind Rain (Finalist, The Poet’s Prize, LSU, 2008), Cinder (Etruscan Press, 2003), The Throats of Narcissus (University of Arkansas, 2001), Radiography (TIL Best Book of Poetry Award, BOA Editions, 1997), The Anteroom of Paradise (Colladay Award, QRL, 1991), and Independence Days (R. Gross Award, Woodley Press, 1990). His poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Georgia Review, The New Republic, The Gettysburg Review, and many other journals. He has received numerous prizes, including fellowships from the NEA, the Texas Institute of the Arts, and the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts. Presently he is a Regents Professor of English at the University of North Texas and Poetry Editor for American Literary Review.

Mary Makofske

Makofske’s manuscript Traction recently won the Richard Snyder Prize and will be published by Ashland Poetry Press in November, 2011. Previous publications are The Disappearance of Gargoyles (Thorntree) and Eating Nasturtiums (winner of a Flume Press chapbook competition). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Natural Bridge, Poetry East, Zone 3, Calyx, Louisville Review, and other journals.