Ends on
Submit to Blessing the Boats Selections 2026

Blessing the Boats Selections: 2026

Open: May 1 - June 15 (portal closes at 11:59PM on June 15th)

2026 Editor-at-Large: Evie Shockley 

 

One Poet Receives: 

  • Book publication by Boa Editions in Fall 2028
  • $1,500 honorarium

 

Blessing the Boats Selections spotlights poetry collections by women of color. As the 2021-2023 Blessing the Boats Selections Editor-at-Large, Aracelis Girmay will read submissions and select the final manuscript for publication. Blessing the Boats Selections is named after Lucille Clifton’s National Book Award-winning collection, Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems (Boa, 2000), in honor and celebration of her enduring legacy. Lucille Clifton's writings of Black life and Black female life have shaped a sense of what is possible for so many. In the poem that begins "won't you celebrate with me," she writes: "born in babylon / both nonwhite and woman / what did i see to be except myself?" Blessing the Boats Selections titles walk behind and grow out of the poetry of those lines. Submissions are thus open to all women poets of color in the U.S., including poets who identify as cis, trans, and non-binary people who are comfortable in a space that centers on women’s experiences, regardless of citizenship and publication history. Our hope is that the Blessing the Boats Selections will further facilitate encounters between readers and writers of some of the most extraordinary texts of our time.

Please see the guidelines below for details.   

Submission Guidelines:

We accept submissions via Submittable or by mail.

  • There is no submission fee associated with this reading period.
  • Manuscript should be a minimum of 65 pages, maximum of 120 pages of poetry.
  • Submit only one book-length, complete manuscript at a time. If two manuscripts are sent, both will be removed from consideration.
  • Manuscript text should be at least 12 pt. font. Manuscript pages should be one-sided.
  • Include a cover letter. Do not include a résumé or vitae.
  • Please include your phone number and/or email address on the cover letter.
  • Simultaneous submissions are okay. Note simultaneous submissions in your cover letter and notify BOA immediately should your submission be accepted elsewhere.
  • Include title, publisher, and publication year of previous full-length poetry collections you have published, if any. Feel free to include an acknowledgments page for any previously published poems in your manuscript. 
  • Family members, or any students who have studied poetry or fiction or literature with Evie Shockley in the past four years, whether that be through a university, a community setting or a tutorial are prohibited from consideration.

Additional Guidelines for Print submissions:

  • Send the manuscript ATTN: BLESSING THE BOATS SELECTIONS.
  • Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with sufficient return postage.
  • Please note that manuscripts will be recycled, not returned.
  • Submissions may be mailed to:

Boa Editions, Ltd. ATTN: Blessing the Boats Selections 250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306 Rochester, NY 14607

 

 

Answers to FAQs:

  • The winner will be announced in Fall 2026.
  • The winning manuscript will be published in Fall 2028, in an original paperback edition and an e-book edition of the American Poets Continuum Series, with a standard royalties package.
  • The winner will retain full copyright of their work.
  • The paper from all manuscripts will be recycled after the winner is announced.
  • Boa Editions assumes no responsibility for loss of manuscripts.
  • As this is an open reading period rather than a contest, submissions are not read blind.

 

BOA Editions