Academy of American Poets Mount Poetry Prize accepting Auburn student submissions

The Auburn University Department of English, in the College of Liberal Arts, announces its annual Robert Hughes Mount, Jr. Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, and endowed by Frances Mayes, is offering a $100 reward, a one-year membership in the Academy of American Poets and a copy of the judge’s collection of poems for the Auburn University student submitting the best poem. One honorable mention will also receive a copy of the judge’s collection of poems.

Additionally, all winning entries written by students 23 years old or younger will be considered for the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award. This prize comes with a $1,000 reward.

Graduate or undergraduate students may submit up to three poems to Rose McLarney of the english department. All poems must be submitted electronically—see below for details. The contest deadline is Feb. 25.

Submission Guidelines:

• Include a cover sheet with your name, mailing address, phone number, Auburn email address and age. Any submissions missing this complete cover page will be disregarded.

• Include up to three poems.

• All poems must be submitted electronically for consideration. The complete submission should be sent from your Auburn email address as a single Word document attachment.

The prize winner will be celebrated at the English Awards Ceremony in the spring. Questions about Auburn's contest should be directed to the Poetry Prize Coordinator, Rose McLarney.

The judge of this year’s contest is Noah Davis. Davis’ manuscript, "Of This River," was selected by George Ella Lyon for the 2019 Wheelbarrow Emerging Poet Book Prize from Michigan State University’s Center for Poetry. His poems and prose have appeared in The Sun, Best New Poets, Orion, North American Review, River Teeth, Sou’wester and Chautauqua among others. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Poet Lore and Natural Bridge. He has been awarded a Katharine Bakeless Nason Fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the 2018 Jean Ritchie Appalachian Literature Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University.

Ross Gay, winner of the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and author of The Book of Delights, has written of Davis’s work, "'Of This River' reminds me that if we get close enough to the earth—to see the monarch fly by in the gem of water resting on the jewelweed, to see the fine hairs of nettles blowing in a breeze—we might remember that we are the earth. We are the horse and the river and the blackbirds lifting from the cornfield. We might remember that we are each other. And then how do we live? And then how do we love? What tender labor this is. What gratitude."