Donald Justice Poetry Prize

The Donald Justice Poetry Prize (appears as Donald Justice Prize on book covers) is a nationally-known prize sponsored by the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards by the West Chester University Poetry Center. Given annually since 2006 to one American poet for an unpublished book-length manuscript of formal poetry, the award includes $1000 and an opportunity for publication. Winners are presented with the award at the West Chester University Poetry Conference. The prize is named after former poet Donald Justice.

Judging
Every two years, two unpublished manuscripts are selected for the award, one of which is given out each year. The winning manuscripts are chosen by a member of the WCU Poetry Conference faculty, which in the past has been done by R. S. Gwynn, David Mason, and A. E. Stallings.

The competition is open to all American poets regardless of whether they have published in the past.

Past Winners
The following are the winners of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize:
 * 2006 &mdash; Kate Light, Gravity's Dream: New Poems and Sonnets
 * 2007 &mdash; Kim Bridgford, In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records
 * 2008 &mdash; John Poch, Two Men Fighting with a Knife
 * 2009 &mdash; Julie Kane, Jazz Funeral
 * 2010 &mdash; Ned Balbo, Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems
 * 2011 &mdash; Amit Majmudar, Heaven and Earth