The Off tHe Grid Poetry Prize
The Off the Grid Prize recognizes the work of older poets and highlights important contemporary voices in poetry. Winners receive $1000 and publication, promotion, and distribution of their book in print and audio formats. We are looking for work by poets over 60, whose writing practice is ongoing and whose vision is fresh while drawing from six or more decades of lived experience.
Past judges have included Marilyn Nelson, Jennifer Tseng, and Garrett Hongo, and Marianne Boruch. The judge for the 2025 contest will be Gregory Orr!
2024 Prizewinner
Jane Medved, Wayfarers
Finalists
Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Lessons with Scissors
Luisa Igloria, The Wound Makes Bearable What Comes After
Steve Leggett, No Two Grains at Rest
Jeffrey Skinner, The Sun at Eye Level
Semifinalists
Linda France, Batkin
Sandra Fees, Wonderwork
Judith Gee, Fireflies
Jean Gallagher, Rivermouth Shouting
Wendell Hawken, Where Moon Means Full
Katharyn Machan, FOX
Veronica Patterson, Glint and Swerve
Frank Paino, Chiaroscuro
Marsha Pomerantz, Exhausting the Apple
Paul Portuges, Sorrow and Joy
Sharon White, Landbrim
Previous Winners
2023: Woman at the Crossing by Susan Okie
2022: Swansdown by Donald Platt
2021: More American by Sharon Hashimoto
2020: This is Where I Live I Have Nowhere Else to Go by Dennis Hinrichsen
2019: Breather by Ioanna Carlsen
2018: My Own Name Seems Strange to Me by Karen Whalley
2017: Improbable Creatures by Jon Davis
2016: Cold Storage by Keith Althaus
2015: Finestra’s Window by Patricia Corbus
2014: Doggerland by Dicko King
2013: Dollhouse by Elaine Terranova
2012: Coyote Bush by Peter Nash
2025 Contest Guidelines
1. The competition is open only to poets aged 60 years or older.
2. Submissions will be open from May 1 to August 31, 2024. The winner will be announced in December of 2024.
3. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication, promotion, and distribution in print and audiobook formats. The entry fee is $25.
4. Manuscripts must be typed, paginated, and at least 50 pages in length. Manuscripts must have a table of contents and include a list of acknowledgments for poems previously published. There should be one title page with the book title only.
5. Do not include your name, or any information that identifies authorship, anywhere in the actual manuscript. All contact information (name, address, phone, email) should be included in the cover letter submitted via Submittable.
6. Individual poems from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks of less than 35 pages, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Previously self-published books are not eligible.
7. Former students of the contest judge may not submit to the contest. Students do not include interactions at short-term residencies or fellowships.
8. AI-generated works are not eligible for this contest.
9. Please submit online via Submittable.
10. Send inquiries to info@grid-books.org.
We are proud to participate in Mass Cultural Council's Card to Culture program in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Public Health's WIC Nutrition Program, the Massachusetts Health Connector, and hundreds of organizations by making cultural programming accessible to those for whom cost is a participation barrier.
EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders will have their contest submission fee waived. Interested applications should contact info@grid-books.org with a request to submit as part of this program.
See the complete list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.
