Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize
Prize: $300 cash prize. Winner and all finalists will receive a one-volume subscription to CALYX Journal and publication on CALYX’s website. Winners will be announced in August.
Dates: March 1 – June 30, 2025, postmarked
Judge: Ellen Bass
Please submit up to three unpublished poems (six pages maximum). Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. The CALYX editorial collective reads all manuscripts first, then selects 15–20 finalists to send to the final judge.
For postal submissions:
Please send up to three unpublished poems (six pages maximum), cover letter with name and contact information, SASE (or contact email), and $15 reading fee (checks payable to CALYX, Inc.).
Send materials to:
CALYX, Inc.
Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize
PO Box B
Corvallis, OR 97339
For online submissions:
Please upload three unpublished poems (six pages maximum) in a single .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdx file to our online submission manager. Reading fee ($15 + $1 paypal processing fee) is payable with Visa or Mastercard through our secure online payment portal. Do not include name on poems—submissions will be read blind.
Photograph by Irene Young
Ellen Bass’s most recent book is Indigo (Copper Canyon, 2020). Among her awards are Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. With Florence Howe, she co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks! (Doubleday, 1973), and she co-authored the groundbreaking, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. A Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz jails. She teaches in Pacific University’s MFA program and offers online Living Room Craft Talks at ellenbass.com.
About the Contest
Lois Cranston was an editor for CALYX Journal for more than ten years. Her remarkable life experiences and knowledge of literature enriched the editorial collective and the journal issues she helped edit. In its twenty-first year, this poetry prize in her name honors the memory of her commitment to the creative work of women from all walks of life.