Furious Flower invites submissions from emerging writers for its annual poetry prize. Poets with no more than one published book are invited to submit up to three poems (no more than a total of 6 pages) for consideration. The winner and honorable mention receive $1500 and $750 respectively and will be invited to read James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va in September 2025. The winner, honorable mention, and finalists will also be published in Obsidian. Winners are announced in April. Submission fee: $15.

2025 Judge: aracelis girmay

aracelis girmay is the author of three books of poems for which she was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Her most recent work is the chapbook and was a flower, made in collaboration with book artist Valentina Améstica. Her newest full-length collection will be out with BOA Editions in the fall. Other recent work has been published in Astra, The Paris Review online, and e-flux. girmay curated How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton and served as the editor of So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (Haymarket, 2023). She is currently completing her last year in her editor-at-large role for the Blessing the Boats Selections. girmay is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.

How to submit your work

Go to Submittable

• Make a free Submittable account
• Read eligibility requirements
• Fill out the form and pay the non-refundable $15 submission fee
• Attach a pdf of your poems (no more than 6 pages) and ensure no identifying information is in the manuscript or the filename

2024

• Michelle Alexander - Winner
• RaeJeana Brooks - Honorable Mention

2023

• Alafia Nicole Sessions - Winner
• Marissa Davis - Honorable Mention

2022

• Ariana Benson - Winner
• Benin Lemus - Honorable Mention

2021

• Aurielle Marie - Winner
• Jennifer Bartell - Honorable Mention

2020

• Diamond Forde - Winner
• Nathan John - Honorable Mention

2019

• Rachelle Parker - Winner
• Cynthia Manick - Honorable Mention

Furious Flower Quarantine Kwansaba Contest (2020)

Furious Flower Poetry Contest for emerging creative writers in response to the COVID-19 quarantine. 

Winner:

Turning - Angel C. Dye 

My panic does not move heaven so

I try turning instead; till terror into

verse, plant praise song and patient seeds

for what remains of spring. Breather- full,

deep. Drink salt- sweet to shed when 

I weep, but I never wither. Intern;

turn inward, away from fear of still. 

Finalists:

Glenis Redmond, Believed to be the First Black Woman Photographed with a Typewriter 

Sherese Francis, Dream Conducts a Mother Tongue's Memory.