This contest is currently closed.

The Hudson Prize

Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or prose. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes awarded on publication.

Entry Period: January 1 - March 31 Early Bird Period: December 1 - December 31 How to submit ›

How to Submit

Black Lawrence Press accepts submissions and payment of the entry fee ($28) exclusively through our online submission manager, Submittable. We are not able to accept submissions via email or postal mail.

Entries are read blind by senior Black Lawrence Press editors and a rotating panel of former Hudson Prize winners. Recent members of the judging panel include:

Jacob Appel, author of Mysteries and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets

Gillian Cummings, author of My Dim Aviary

JoeAnn Hart, author of Highwire Act & Other Tales of Survival

Bettina Judd, author of Patient.

Beth Mayer,  author of We Will Tell You Otherwise

Manuscripts should include a title page (listing only the title of the work), table of contents, and when appropriate, an acknowledgments page. Manuscripts should be paginated and formatted in an easy-to-read font such as Garamond or Times New Roman. Manuscripts should be 45-95 pages in length (poetry) or 120-280 pages in length (prose), not including front and back matter (table of contents, title page, etc.). Identifying information for the author should not be included anywhere on the manuscript itself. You are welcome to include a brief bio or something about yourself in your cover note on Submittable, which will only be made accessible to the editorial panel after the group of Semi-Finalist and Finalist manuscripts has been chosen.

Manuscripts containing individual stories, essays, or poems that have been previously published online or in print are absolutely eligible–please simply note previously published work on an acknowledgments page. On the other hand, if your manuscript has been previously published as a collection (including publication with a press, self-publication, online/digital publication, and publication in a small, limited-edition print run), then the manuscript is not eligible.

  • Simultaneous submissions are acceptable and encouraged, but please notify us by withdrawing your manuscript on Submittable immediately if it is accepted for publication elsewhere.
  • Multiple submissions (the submission of more than one manuscript to the contest) are permitted.
  • Collaborative collections are welcome.
  • Hybrid/multi-genre submissions are also welcome; please enter under the submission category that best fits your work.

Need help with our submissions manager?
Visit http://help.submittable.com

We look forward to reading your work!

2023 Winner

Jeremy Griffin

for Scream Queen

Jeremy Griffin grew up in Louisiana and received his MFA in creative writing from Virginia Tech University. He is the author of the short story collections A Last Resort for Desperate People: Stories and a Novella, from SFAU Press; Oceanography, winner of the Orison Books 2018 Fiction Prize; and Scream Queen, winner of the 2023 BLP Hudson Prize. His work has appeared in such journals as the Alaska Quarterly ReviewBellevue Literary ReviewHopkins Review, and Oxford American. He has received support from the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Simpson College in Iowa.

Visit Author Page