Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize
Prize: $300 cash prize. Winner and all finalists will receive a one-volume subscription to CALYX Journal and publication on CALYX’s website. Winners will be announced in August.
Dates: March 1 – June 30, 2026, postmarked
Judge: Nicole Cooley
Please submit up to three unpublished poems (six pages maximum). Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. The CALYX editorial collective reads all manuscripts first, then selects 15–20 finalists to send to the final judge.
AI Policy: CALYX has a strict anti-AI policy. Please do not submit any work that has been generated using AI tools (spellcheck and grammar check tools are okay).
For postal submissions:
Please send up to three unpublished poems (six pages maximum), cover letter with name and contact information, SASE (or contact email), and $15 reading fee (checks payable to CALYX, Inc.).
Send materials to:
CALYX, Inc.
Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize
PO Box B
Corvallis, OR 97339
For online submissions:
Please upload three unpublished poems (six pages maximum) in a single .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdx file to our online submission manager or through CALYX’s Submittable account. Reading fee ($15 + $1 PayPal processing fee) is payable with Visa or Mastercard through our secure online payment portal. Do not include name on poems—submissions will be read blind.
Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans and is the author of seven books of poems, most recently MOTHER WATER ASH (LSU Press 2024) and the forthcoming TRASH (Alice James Books 2027). Her awards include The Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America, and a NJ Council for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. She teaches in the MFA program in creative writing and literary translation at Queens College, City University of New York.
About the Contest
Lois Cranston was an editor for CALYX Journal for more than ten years. Her remarkable life experiences and knowledge of literature enriched the editorial collective and the journal issues she helped edit. In its twenty-first year, this poetry prize in her name honors the memory of her commitment to the creative work of women from all walks of life.