Submissions are open!

Thanks to all who submitted and shared last year, our inaugural contest was a great success and we're excited to be running it again. Submissions for the 2026 contest are open until Oct 31, 11:59pm PT.

2026 Submission Guidelines

• Submission period: Oct 1-31, 2026
• $15 entry fee
• 1 poem per entry, 1 entry per person
  
• Poems must be 25 lines or shorter. Excerpts from longer poems acceptable.
  
• Poems must be your own original writing. Work generated in any way with AI is not acceptable.
• Submissions must be formatted as a PDF with text in 12pt Georgia, and with no identifying personal information in the document (this includes the file name; please leave your name off so we can read submissions blind).
• Simultaneous submissions allowed.
• Submissions may be previously published if you can get permission for a broadside to be printed.
  
• Prize: a letterpress broadside designed and printed by Myrna Keliher of Expedition Press! Also:
  
  • $100 cash
  • 20 copies of the broadside
  • Feature in Expedition’s newsletter & blog
  • Publication credit if previously unpublished
    
• Contest is closed to past winners of this contest, and to all past or present students, interns, or employees of Expedition Press.
• Submitting will auto-add you to Expedition’s mailing list (unsubscribe any time).
  
• Final selection by Myrna Keliher, artist and owner of Expedition Press.
• Winner announced in winter 2027, broadside produced in spring 2027.

Contest FAQ

Wait, what is a broadside? Good question! A poetry broadside is a single-sided printed sheet that shows a whole poem or an excerpt of one. Expedition Press broadsides are letterpress printed from handset type on old presses. We wrote a whole article on the topic if you want to know more.

What kind of poems are you interested in? All styles are accepted — just send us your best work! Shorter poems and/or excerpts tend to work best for broadsides, hence the 25 line limit. For deeper context, have a look at our poetry broadside collection to get a sense of our style and the texts we've selected over the years.

Can I submit more than once? How many poems? Only one submission is allowed per person. One submission = one pdf, with one poem or excerpt in it, and a $15 fee paid. We changed this from last year to simplify the review process.

I can't afford to pay the submission fee. Will you waive it? While we rely on fees to be able to run the contest, we also understand financial challenges firsthand and are committed to equitable access—it's one of the reasons we started this contest in the first place! We will waive the entry fee for a set number of submissions each year and will do so on a first come, first served basis. Please email hello@expedition.press to inquire.

Do I really have to use Georgia? Why? Georgia is a digital typeface (aka font) that was designed for ease of reading on screen, is widely accessible, and is simple and pleasing. We want to read as objectively as possible, so it's important to us that all submissions are in the same typeface. If your poem requires a different font and/or has visual aspects not allowed for in the required formatting, please feel welcome to email us with specific questions: hello@expedition.press.

How many copies of the broadside will be made? Edition size and format for the winning broadside will be determined based on the poem selected. Our design process begins and ends with deep consideration of the text, so we don't know what the final piece will look like until we've spent time with the poem.

Do I get a say in the design? Poets receive a design proof ahead of printing and are invited to give input. Final design is up to Expedition Press, as we are often refining up to the last moment on press.

What will Expedition Press do with the rest of the broadsides? They will be available for sale on our website and at shows where we exhibit. Authors are welcome to sell their copies, and will have access to more copies of their broadside at a discounted price if desired. Finally, if the poem was previously published and we've gotten permission to print, the publisher will receive comp copies as well.

Will it be a limited edition? Probably not. We'll agree on a set number of copies initially, some of which we may ask the author to sign. We like to offer signed and unsigned copies but leave editions open because it allows us to maintain more accessible pricing and keep things in print.

What is the review process for the contest? All submissions will be reviewed blind by a panel of readers from the Expedition Press community. Final selection will be by Myrna Keliher.

Do you accept poems in translation? Yes! With the caveat that you must have permission from the original author and/or publisher and their blessings on submitting your translation to our contest. Please submit the original poem alongside your translation and note it as such.

What about poems in languages other than English? Yes, if accompanied by an English translation. We love to work with poems in other languages but also, English is the only one we speak well enough here at the Press to be able to read and judge original work. So if you want to submit in another language, you'll need to submit an English translation alongside. Hablamos español también pero nos gustaría ver su traducción en ingles igual.

The poem I submitted got accepted somewhere else! What should I do? Please let us know as soon as you can. We are open to keeping your poem in the running if you want to ask the publisher whether they'd be open to having a broadside made of the poem as well. In our experience, many publishers are very happy for letterpress broadsides to exist of poems they've published and there's great opportunity to collaborate on cross-promotion, which we're always happy for. Of course if you need to withdraw your submission for whatever reason, just let us know.

Why does this contest exist? To connect, to widen reading horizons, to broaden community, to increase access. Here's the backstory from Myrna about why she decided to start a contest, written just before we launched it in 2025.

Still have questions? Email hello@expedition.press and we'll do our best to answer in a timely manner.

2025 Winner & Finalists

Thank you to everyone who submitted to our 2025 contest! 

The winner was Judy Nahum, for an excerpt from "Letter to my Izmirli ancestors." Here is the winning broadside: Half the Stars.

The three finalists were: Melanie Ehler Collopy, for "the personals," T. De Los Reyes, for "I beg what I love and I leave to forgive me,"  and Mary McAfoose, for "Gaze."