The Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize
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About
$1,000 + Publication
2025 Judge: TBD
Established in 2001, The Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize highlights one book a year that excels in the chapbook format. Since 2024, the Prize comes with a $1,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.
Recent judges include Carolyn Hembree, Alison Pelegrin, Taylor Johnson, Benjamin Garcia, Esther Lin, and Gary Jackson.
Submissions open each year on January 1 and close on March 31.
Winner of the 2024 Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize:
6 Lineage Poems, by Fernando Trujillo
Selected by Carolyn Hembree
Submission Guidelines
Submit to The Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize
General Guidelines
- A fee of $20 must be paid at the time of submission.
- Open to any poet writing in English. Translations are not eligible.
- Poems may have been published individually in magazines or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.
- Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please notify TRP immediately by withdrawing the manuscript via Submittable if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
- Current and former students and faculty of Sam Houston State University are not eligible.
- Family and current or former students* of the final judge or TRP staff are not eligible.
- Current and former TRP authors are not eligible.
- Submitters must be 18+ years of age.
- Submissions are accepted through Submittable only.
- Winner will receive a $1,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.
*Writers who studied with TRP staff or the final judge for a semester-length period are not eligible. Writers who studied with TRP staff or the final judge for two-week residencies, single workshops, or other instances less than a semester in length are eligible, provided the work submitted is previously unseen by TRP staff or the final judge.
Manuscript Guidelines
- Manuscripts may be no longer than 40 pages.
- Please include a table of contents, title page, and page numbers.
- Do not include an acknowledgments page.
- No more than one poem per page.
- Submissions are judged on an anonymous basis. Please remove any identifying information from the manuscript.
- Submit as a .pdf, .docx, or .doc file format.
- No revisions will be accepted once the manuscript is uploaded.
Contest Judge: TBD
Robert Phillips
Robert Phillips (1938-2022), for whom this competition is named, is the author or editor of over thirty volumes of poetry, fiction, and criticism. His honors include a Pushcart Prize, an American Academy and Institute of Arts Letters Award in Literature, a New York State Council on the Arts CAPS Grant in Poetry, MacDowell Colony and Yaddo Fellowships, a National Public Radio Syndicated Fiction Project Award, a Syracuse University Arents Pioneer Medal, and Texas Institute of Letters membership.
Previous Winners & Judges:
2024: Fernando Trujillo – 6 Lineage Poems
Judged by Carolyn Hembree
2023: Christine Kitano – Dumb Luck & other poems
Judged by Alison Pelegrin
2022: J. L. Conrad – Recovery
Judged by Taylor Johnson
2021: Marisa Tirado – Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either
Judged by Benjamin Garcia
2020: Elisabeth Murawski – Still Life with Timex
Judged by Esther Lin
2019: Thomas V. Nguyen – Permutations of a Self
Judged by Gary Jackson
2018: Gregory Byrd – The Name for the God Who Speaks
Judged by Loueva Smith
2017: Evana Bodiker – Ephemera
Judged by Robert Phillips
2016: Mark Schneider – How Many Faces Do You Have?
Judged by Richard Foerster
2015: Loueva Smith – Consequences of a Moonless Night
Judged by Richard Foerster
2014: J. Scott Brownlee – Ascension
Judged by William Wright
2013: Harold Whit Williams – Backmasking
Judged by William Wright
2012: David Lanier – Lost and Found
Judged by Larry D. Thomas
2011: John Popielaski – Isn’t It Romantic?
Judged by William Wright
2010: Ingrid Browning Moody – Learning About Fire
2009: David Havird – Penelope’s Design
Judged by Robert Phillips
2008: Rebecca Foust – Mom’s Canoe
2007: Rebecca Foust – Dark Card
Judged by Robert Phillips
2006: Lisa Hammond – Moving House
2005: Taylor Graham - The Downstairs Dance Floor
Judged by R. S. Gwynn
2004: Kevin Meaux – Myths of Electricity
Judged by Robert Phillips
2003: Ann Killough – Sinners in the Hands: Selections from the Catalog
Judged by Beth Ann Fennelly
2002: Nancy Naomi Carlson – Complications of the Heart
Judged by Richard Foerster
2001: William Notter – More Space Than Anyone Can Stand
Judged by Gray Jacobick