For over 60 years 92Y’s Discovery Contest has launched the careers of major poets, like John Ashbery, Mark Strand, Lucille Clifton, Mary Jo Bang and Eduardo C. Corral, to name but a few.
Will you be next? Winners receive a reading at 92Y, publication in Boston Review and $500 each. Read selections by last year’s winners.
Applications must be submitted by Fri, Jan 13, 2017, at 5 pm. To apply, read the guidelines and submit here.
This year’s preliminary judges are Timothy Donnelly and francine j. harris. The final judges are Henri Cole, Douglas Kearney and Monica Youn.
“Being a poet is an uphill battle, and at first, it can feel like a losing one. Winning the Discovery prize was my first resounding yes. I remember thinking, as I walked onto the 92Y stage, where so many legendary talents had read before, I can do this. I am doing this. Suddenly, so much seemed possible. It was an experience I’ll never forget.”
- Camille Rankine, 2010 Discovery/Boston Review winner and author of Incorrect Merciful Impulses.
Preliminary Judges
Timothy Donnelly is poetry editor at Boston Review and the author of Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit and The Cloud Corporation, for which he won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
francine j. harris is the author of play dead and allegiance, a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the PEN Open Book Award.
Final Judges
Henri Cole is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Middle Earth, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; Blackbird and Wolf, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and most recently Nothing to Declare.
Douglas Kearney is the author of Someone Took They Tongues: 3 Operas, Mess and Mess and, Patter and The Black Automaton, a National Poetry Series selection.
Monica Youn is the author of Barter; Ignatz, a finalist for the National Book Award; and Blackacre.
This contest is endowed by Joan L. and Dr. Julius H. Jacobson, II.