Submit to the H. MacKnight Black Competition in Poetry Prize

You are invited to compete for the H. MacKnight Black Competition in Poetry Prize (open to seniors only). A maximum of three poems may be submitted, each typed on a separate sheet of paper. All poems submitted must be original and unpublished in campus publications or elsewhere, including on blogs and anywhere else on the Internet. The poems must be labeled with the name of the prize (H.MacKnight Black). The writer’s name, class year, email address, and phone number must appear on the accompanying envelope or folder but not on the poems themselves.

All entries must be submitted to Ms. Maureen Mulrooney, administrative assistant, Department of English, 316 Pardee, no later than noon on Tues., April 5.

The H. MacKnight Black Prize ($500 by deed of gift) is awarded annually in memory of H. MacKnight Black ’16, who at the time of his death in 1931 was one of America’s significant poets.

The judge of the 2022 H. MacKnight Black Competition in Poetry Prize will be Donika Kelly. Kelly is the author of THE RENUNCIATIONS (Graywolf 2021) and BESTIARY (Graywolf). BESTIARY is the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. The collection was also long listed for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for a Publishing Triangle Award and a Lambda Literary Award. A Cave Canem graduate fellow and member of the collective Poets at the End of the World, Donika has also received a Lannan Residency Fellowship, and a summer workshop fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic online, The Paris Review, and Foglifter. She currently lives in Iowa City and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches creative writing.