For the month of April, Foundlings Press will accept submissions for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. This year’s guest judge is Richard Jackson. The winning poet will receive a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Submission is free and open to all.
SELECTION AND PRIZE
The winner of the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize will receive $250 and publication of a limited-edition run of letterpress broadsides of the winning poem designed by Foundlings Press printmaker and book artist in residence Talia Ryan. The broadsides will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entry is free
Send only one poem as a PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Entry window opens April 1 at 11:59pm ET and closes May 1 at 11:59pm ET
We will disregard submissions that arrive outside that window
Past Winners
2023: “Moon Jar,” by Emma Aylor, selected by Victoria Redel
2022: “Sestina for Klein Blue,” by Emma Fuchs, selected by David St. John
2021: “The Biologists,” by Margarita Serafimova, selected by Mary Ruefle
Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson is the author of 17 books of poetry including The Heart as Framed: New and Select Poems, Dispatches, Where The Wind Comes From and Broken Horizons, and 12 books of essays, interviews, translations, editions and anthologies. Winner of Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA. NEH and Witter Bynner Fellowships and the order of Freedom from the President of Slovenia for his literary and humanitarian work during the Balkan wars, he has also edited 32 chapbooks from eastern European poets.
His poems have been translated into 17 languages and his books have won the U of Alabama Book Award, Cleveland State Book Prize, U Mass Juniper Prize, Ashland Poetry Press Award, Eric Hofer Award, Maxine Kumin Award, Ben Franklin Award. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies such as 5 Pushcart appearances, Best American Poems, Best of Georgia Review, Best of Crazy Horse, Prairie Schooner Anthology and others. He has given readings and lectures at dozens of universities and libraries as well as in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Canada, England, Wales, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary and Romania. Over 52 of his former UT-Chattanooga undergrads have gone on to publish nearly 130 books. He is Distinguished Emeritus Professor at UTC and founder of the Meacham Writers’ Workshops.
Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
REMEMBERING RALPH ANGEL
Ralph Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Foundlings Press Publisher Aidan Ryan says: I remember vividly speaking with Ralph over the phone, in the first days of the new year, about his contribution to our series. His voice was like his poems: patient, clear, direct, with a laugh always waiting in the wings. Here was a celebrated poet, a senior statesman of poetry, taking a call from a stranger and offering his work (without any chance of acclaim or fair remuneration) to an upstart, unproven little press from Buffalo. I remember the gratitude, amazement, and and relief I felt when Ralph so immediately understood our spirit as a press and the thrust of the Strays project. And what a gift his poems were.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. I’m happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.com/.
