The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
About
$10,000 + Publication + Residency at Vermont Studio Center
2025 Judge: Shane McCrae
Established in 1998, The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize highlights one full-length collection of poetry per year. Since 2024, the Prize comes with a $10,000 advance, TRP's X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.
Recent judges include Diane Seuss, Richard Blanco, Kimiko Hahn, Kazim Ali, Maggie Smith, and Marilyn Nelson.
Submissions open each year on July 1 and close on September 30.
Winner of The 2024 X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize:
Fenestration, by Othuke Umukoro
Selected by Diane Seuss
Submission Guidelines
Submit to The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
General Guidelines
- Submissions are open July 1 – September 30.
- A fee of $28 must be paid at the time of submission.
- Open to any poet writing in English. Translations are not eligible.
- The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize is not a first book prize, though we welcome first books. The Prize is open to poets at any stage of their career.
- There are no formal restrictions for this prize; we welcome manuscripts of any style/form.
- Poems may have been published individually in magazines or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.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 members 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 $10,000 advance, TRP's X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.
*Writers who studied with the final judge or TRP staff for a semester-length period are not eligible. Writers who studied with the final judge or TRP staff 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 must be between 50 and 100 pages in length.
- Please include a table of contents, title page, and page numbers.
- Do not include an acknowledgments page.
- No more than one poem per page. (Multi-page poems are welcome.)
- Submissions are anonymous. 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.
Submit to The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
TRP’s X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center
Vermont Studio Center (VSC) and TRP: The University Press of SHSU (TRP) are pleased to announce a partnership to offer the TRP’s X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center. This fellowship offers a three-week residency, in the summer, to a recipient of the X. J. Kennedy Prize and includes a private studio space, a private room in shared lodging, access to the Visiting Artists & Writers Program, and all meals. The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellow at VSC will join an inclusive international community of artists and writers located in northern Vermont.
Learn more about Vermont Studio Center
Judge: Shane McCrae
Shane McCrae’s most recent books of poetry are New and Collected Hell and The Many Hundreds of the Scent. He has edited a volume of John Berryman's uncollected Dream Songs, which will be published in December of 2025. McCrae's awards include a Lannan Literary Award and a Whiting Writer's Award and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
Photo Credit: Shane McCrae
X. J. KENNEDY
X. J. Kennedy, for whom this competition is named, is a distinguished poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and is the author of numerous books of poetry, children’s literature, and textbooks on English literature. Kennedy won the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal for lifetime service to poetry in 2009.
Previous Winners & Judges:
2024: Othuke Umukoro– Fenestration
Judged by Diane Seuss
2023: Rob Carney – The Book of Drought
Judged by Richard Blanco
2022: Sebastian Merrill – GHOST :: SEEDS
Judged by Kimiko Hahn
2021: Kathleen Rooney – Where Are the Snows
Judged by Kazim Ali
2020: Brooke Sahni – Before I Had the Word
Judged by Maggie Smith
2019: Caroline M. Mar – Special Education
Judged by Marilyn Nelson
2018: Garret Keizer – The World Pushes Back
Judged by Jesse Graves
2017: Jay Udall – Because a Fire in Our Heads
Judged by David M. Parsons
2016: Jeff Hardin – No Other Kind of World
Judged by X. J. Kennedy
2015: Gwen Hart – The Empress of Kisses
Judged by Beth Ann Fennelly
2014: Corinna McClanahan Schroeder – Inked
Judged by William Virgil Davis
2013: Ashley Mace Havird – The Garden of the Fugitives
Judged by R. T. Smith
2012: Jeff Worley – A Little Luck
Judged by Sandra Beasley
2011: James McKean – We Are the Bus
Judged by David Bottoms
2010: George Drew – The View from Jackass Hill
Judged by Robert Phillips
2009: Joshua Coben – Maker of Shadows
2008: Ashley Renee – Basic Heart
Judged by Jack Myers
2007: William Baer – “Bocage” and Other Sonnets
2006: Becky Gould Gibson – Aphrodite’s Daughter
2005: Deborah Bogen – Landscape with Silos
Judged by Jean Valentine
2004: Lee Rudolph – A Woman and a Man, Ice-Fishing
Judged by John Hollander
2003: Eric Nelson – Terrestrials
Judged by Maxine Kumin
2002: Jan Lee Ande – Reliquary
Judged by Louis Simpson
2001: Jorn Ake – Asleep in the Lightning Fields
Judged by Henry Taylor
2000: Barbara Lau – The Long Surprise
Judged by X. J. Kennedy
1999: Philip Heldrich – Good Friday
Judged by X. J. Kennedy
1998: Gray Jacobik – The Surface of Last Scattering
Judged by Brian Clements