Neville Dawes First Book Prize for Emerging Caribbean Poets
The Neville Dawes First Book Prize celebrates the work of an emerging Caribbean poet with a $1,000 USD cash prize and publication of a full-length manuscript by the University of Nebraska Press. Run annually, the contest is open to emerging Caribbean poets who have not yet published a full-length book of poetry. Poets may reside anywhere globally, as long as they are of Caribbean origin. There is no reading fee to submit to the prize.
Neville Dawes (1926-1984) was born in Nigeria of Jamaican parents but grew up in rural Sturge Town in Jamaica. He studied for an MA at Oxford (Oriel College) and later taught in Jamaica, Ghana, and Guyana. He wrote two novels, The Last Enchantment and Interim and a critical work, Prolegomena to West Indian Literature. Another book, Fugue and Other Writings, brings together his poetry, short stories, autobiographical writing and literary criticism. He was appointed Director of the Institute of Jamaica on his return to Jamaica and established the Institute’s short-lived but important publishing programme. Always a Marxist, he was deeply immersed in Africa, in English Literature, and in his nationalist identification with the rural Jamaican working class. His writing is located within these poles. Neville Dawes is the father of author and editor Kwame Dawes.
The Neville Dawes First Book Prize for Emerging Caribbean Poets will only accept “first book” submissions from Caribbean writers who have not published a book-length poetry collection. This includes self-published books if they were sold online, in stores, or at readings. Writers who have edited and published an anthology or a similar collection of other writers’ work remain eligible.
A Caribbean writer is taken to mean someone who was born in the Caribbean, who is a national or resident of a Caribbean country, or whose parents are Caribbean.
Only poetry submissions in English can be considered. Work translated from another language to English is accepted, but a percentage of the prize will be awarded to the translator.
No past or present paid employees of the University of Nebraska Press, Akashic Books, or current faculty, students, or employees of Brown University are eligible for the prizes.
Submission Guidelines
When to Send
Manuscripts are accepted annually between September 15th and December 1st.
Manuscript
No entry fee is required to submit to the contest.
Poetry manuscripts should be at least 50 pages long.
The author’s name should not appear on the manuscript. All entries will be read anonymously. Please include a cover page listing only the title of the manuscript (not the author’s name, address, telephone number, or email address). An acknowledgements page listing the publication history of individual poems may be included, if desired. No application forms are necessary.
Eligible writers may submit more than one manuscript.
While we have no specific formatting rules, we suggest sending your manuscript in Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point font, single-spaced. We also prefer one poem per page, meaning a new poem does not begin on the same page on which another ends.
Submission Platform
The Neville Dawes First Book Prize for Emerging Caribbean Poets accepts electronic submissions ONLY. Click here to submit via Submittable<insert link>.
To ensure confidentiality and fairness, all submissions to the prize are handled by our Prize Coordinator, Jae Geralde. Please direct questions to her attention at cpbsc@brown.edu.