Poetry
Graywolf Press partners with the Academy of American Poets, Cave Canem, and the Poetry Foundation to publish and promote the work of new and emerging writers.
Prizes & Awards show more +
Academy of American Poets First Book Award
The Academy of American Poets First Book Award is a $5,000 first-book publication prize. Each year, a winning manuscript is chosen by an acclaimed poet. In addition to publication and promotion by Graywolf Press, the winner receives an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy, and a trip to New York City to attend the American Poets Prizes ceremony. The Academy of American Poets purchases copies of the winning book to distribute to thousands of its members. For more information, please visit the Academy of American Poets website.
Cave Canem Prize
The Cave Canem Prize supports the work of Black poets to overcome the obstacle of publishing their first book of poems. Awarded to one poet annually, the prize recipient receives a $10,000 award, as well as having their manuscript published. Graywolf Press is one of the three partner publishers of the Cave Canem Prize. For more information, please visit the Cave Canem website.
Pegasus Poetry Book Prize
The Pegasus Poetry Book Prize, established by the Poetry Foundation in partnership with Graywolf Press, awards $10,000 and publication to an unpublished first or second poetry collection by a poet forty years or older. For more information, please visit the Poetry Foundation website.
PROSE
Agents may submit fiction or nonfiction manuscripts to the appropriate editor for consideration. We regret that due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to consider un-agented prose manuscripts.
In 2025, we decided to conclude the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. We are grateful to have published many genre-defining and genre-defying books during the prize’s twenty-year history, and we will continue to seek out and champion risk-taking works of literary nonfiction.
The Craft of Writing
The following pieces on the craft of writing were contributed by Graywolf authors and staff members.
First Pages
Fiona McCrae
VISUAL POETRY
Mary Szybist
THE ART OF REJECTION
Jeff Shotts
PUNCTUATION
Susan Steinberg
the request moment
Charles Baxter
CONNECTION
Sarah Manguso
STARTING A TANKA DIARY
Harryette Mullen
Haibun, Bashō, the Poet as Journalist as Poet
Tom Sleigh
Having Gravity and Having Weight
Robert Boswell
“Image Out of Sound”
Tony Hoagland
