Michael Waters Poetry Prize
The Michael Waters Poetry Prize was established in 2013 to honor Michael’s contributions to Southern Indiana Review and American arts and letters.
A prize of $5,000 and publication by SIR Press is awarded annually for a collection of poetry written in English. All entries are considered for publication. Michael Waters is the final judge. Entrants receive a one-year subscription to Southern Indiana Review.
Next deadline: February 1, 2023.
Click here for complete MWPP 2023 guidelines.
Click here to upload your MWPP 2023 entry (Available December 1, 2022).
Contest mailing address (for inquiries and print entries):
Southern Indiana Review
Michael Waters Poetry Prize
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Boulevard
Evansville, IN 47712
2022 MWPP Winner
Chelsea Woodard is the author of the collections Vellum (Able Muse Press, 2014) and Solitary Bee (Measure Press, 2016). Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Southwest Review, 32 Poems, River Styx, Blackbird, and elsewhere. Woodard is the recipient of a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.
Previous MWPP Winners
2021: Bethany Hurst
2020: Erin Rodoni
2019: Julia Koets
2018: Chelsea Wagenaar
2017: Marty McConnell
2016: Ruth Awad
2015: Annie Kim
2014: Dennis Hinrichsen & Hannah Faith Notess
2013: Doug Ramspeck
About Michael Waters
Michael Waters has written thirteen books of poetry, most recently Caw (BOA Editions, 2020); The Dean of Discipline (U Pittsburgh Press, 2018); Celestial Joyride (BOA Editions, 2016); Gospel Night (BOA, 2011); Darling Vulgarity, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (BOA, 2006); and Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems, finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize (BOA, 2001). His poems have appeared in various journals, including The Yale Review, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, The Georgia Review, and RollingStone. Among his awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright Foundation and fellowship residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, The Tyrone Guthrie Center (Ireland), Le Chateau de Lavigny (Switzerland), and The St. James Centre for Creativity (Malta). He teaches in the Drew University MFA Program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation. Waters lives with his wife, poet Mihaela Moscaliuc, in Ocean, New Jersey.