Idaho Prize for Poetry
2026
Call for Submissions
2026 Final Judge: Diane Seuss, author of Modern Poetry and frank: sonnets
LOST HORSE PRESS is now accepting submissions for the Idaho Prize for Poetry. U.S. poets are eligible to submit manuscripts of 48 or more pages.
Entries must be submitted by May 15.
Winners will be announced by August 15.
The contest carries a $1000 cash prize, publication, & 20 comp author copies.
$28 Submission Fee. Read the full guidelines at Submittable.
Submit by May 15!
2026 Final Judge
Diane Seuss is the author of six books of poetry, including Modern Poetry (2024), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize; and frank: sonnets (2021), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Seuss was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and she is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her seventh collection, Althea: Poems, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2027.
Recent Winners
Contest Archive
2025 [Final Judge: Grace Bauer]
WINNER: Here's Company by Muriel Nelson
SHORT LIST: Younger Strata of the Carboniferous by Andrew Krivak; Strange and Constant by Max Schleicher; Along the Shore of Death and Dreaming by John Kneisley; Bat Hour by Cynthia Hogue
LONG LIST: Somewhere Horses by Jasmine Khaliq; Sleep With Me by Michelle Orsi; Waxing the Parasitical Muse by Drema Drudge; Psyche In the Wilderness by Tatiana Retivov; Jane by Anna Larson; Larry Something by Mark Kraushaar; And the Pool Becomes the Sky by Fay Dillof; Snails of the Apocalypse by Martha Zweig; Hysteria by Christine Robbins; Pinkyard by Alex Braslavsky; Bridge to New Music by Judith Fox; Days in the Life by Paul Buchheit
2024 [Final Judge: Jackson Holbert]
WINNER: Secret Work by Meredith Mason
SHORT LIST: All The Everlastings by Gabriella Klein; The Weather Here by Larry Eby; The Histories by Andrew Krivák
LONG LIST: The Beautiful Language of Our Disaster by Dale Going; Your Best American Mii by Lorenzo Barajas; Strange and Constant by Max Schleicher; King of Song by Matthew Zhao; unlovedland.com by Christiane Jacox; Penguin Noir by Nicelle Davis; New Leaves Among the Dying Fruit by Martha Silano; Wake Robin by gigi marks; Datura by Adrian Quintanar; All the Everlastings by Gabriella Klein; Wantless by Katie Condon; Cassandra and the Ghost Bees by Christine Robbins; Beyond Reach by Kevin Clark; Let Other Hounds Howl by Scott LaMascus
2023 [Final Judge: Roy Bentley]
WINNER: In the Country of Hard Life and Rosebuds by Anna Leigh Knowles
SHORT LIST: The Rending Sound; Recovery Commands;The Worried Well; Inside the Body Goblet; Dear Empire
LONG LIST: You Will Not Be in My Obituary;The Touchdown; The Falconer’s Command; Requiem; Re(Breath); Primary Material; Must Be Present to Win; Departing Basho; Adjusted to the Invisible; Addiction Apocolypse
2022 [Final Judge: Dzvinia Orlowsky]
WINNER: Migrations & Other Exiles by Letisia Cruz
SHORT LIST: glitter by Bonnie Jill Emanuel; Wannabe by Max Seifert; Visitation by Steven Gehrke; Reunite the Beatles by Carolyn Guinzio; Heartworm by Adam Scheffler
2021 [Final Judge: Ilya Kaminsky]
WINNER: Stem by Lisa Allen Ortiz
SHORT LIST: Visitation by Steven Gehrke; Loose Change by Sam Magavern
2020 [Final Judge: Jackson Holbert]
WINNER: Ticker by Mark Neely
SHORT LIST: Recovery Commands by Abby Murray; Say What a River Is by Kathryn Hunt; Doll Apollo by Melissa Ginsburg; In the Hinges of the World by Marjorie Stein; Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin by Jake Byrne; Bizarre by Nathaniel Perry
LONG LIST: Curriculum by Meghan Dunn; All That is Not the Angel by Travis Helms; Prayer Book for the New Heretic by C. Pope; An Archaeology of Light by Stuart Lishan; American Eclipse by Kateri Kosek; Heavier Than Sky by David Moolten; Selected Notes on Silence and Noise by Suzanne Wise; Glass Puppets Address the Future by Linda Cooper; Left Toward Sunset by David Semanki; Acoustic Shadows by Ceridwen Hall
2019 [Final Judge: Sandra Alcosser]
WINNER: Don't Touch the Bones by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
SHORT LIST: Light Prop for an Electric Stage by Arne Weingart; Last Call for Elysium by M. Shayne Bell; Say What A River by Kathryn Hunt; The Clearing by Allison Adair
LONG LIST: peep by Danielle Blau; Alien by Louise Akers; Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan; The Trades by Caroline Goodwin; Foxlogic, Fireweed by Jennifer Sweeney; Apoptosis by Samuel Gilpin; Racecar Jesus by Travis Mossotti
2018 [Final Judge: Piotr Florczyk]
WINNER: Radiation King by Jason Gray
SHORT LIST: Don't Touch the Bones by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach; The Condition as a Quiet Room by Heidi Poon; Of Water by Dan Lechay; The Dreams of Weapons by Melissa Ginsburg; Pennsylvania Furnace by Julie Swarstad Johnson
LONG LIST: Sketches from the Summer Maudlin by Stephen Priest; View-Master by Julie Hanson; Call and Response by Robert Carney; The You That All Along Has Housed You by Leslie Ullman; Gullier by Christopher Citro; The Adjacent Possible by Julie Phillips Brown; A Wake with Nine Shades by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth; Wax of What's Left by Kristina Erny; Freehand by Karl Zuehlke
2017 [Final Judge: Robert Wrigley]
WINNER: Post & Rail by Erica Funkhouser
SHORT LIST: Sketches for the Summer Maudlin by Stephen Priest; Coracle by Emily Tuszynska; Posthumous Noon by Aaron Baker; November by Samn Stockwell; In-Migration by Kimberly Kruge; Falling Sick While Dreaming by Stuart Greenhouse; Naming the Lifeboat by Justin Gardiner; Bizarre by Nathaniel Perry; Love Letters by Laure McKee; Archangelly by Allen Peterson; The Infinity Room by Gary Fincke; [ganbatte] by Sarah Kortemeier; You Won’t Find it On a Map by Kathryn Hunt; Wild Honey, Tough Salt by Kim Stafford
2016 [Final Judge: Gary Copeland Lilley]
WINNER: What it Done to Us by Essy Stone
SHORT LIST: Sungrazer by James Crews; The Moon Never Ages by Casey Charles; Ode to the Earth in Translation by George Looney; The Fire Academy by Dana Roeser; Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining by Mark Wagenaar; [ganbatte] by Sarah Kortemeier; White Birds by John Clarke; Sad Atlas by Bradley Harrison; Same Water Flowing by Judith Small; A Filament Burns in Blue Degrees by Kendra Tanacea; Talking to Yourself is Fine by Sally Dawidoff; The Infinity Room by Gary Fincke; Habitat Group by Dave Snyder
2015 [Final Judge: Kim Addonizio]
WINNER: Fugitives by Danielle Pieratti
SHORT LIST: Longhand by Brian Culhane; This is All I Can Tell You by David J.S. Pickering; Inland Sea by Debra Nystrom; Falsetto by Robert Stephens; [Taxonomies / Something Opened] by Samantha Deal; Ya Te Veo by P. Scott Cunningham; After by Robert Gibb; somebody, maybe by Sally Cox; Inventory by Landon Godfrey; Odd Lots, Scraps, and Second-Hand, Like New by Will Wells
2014 [Final Judge: Dorianne Laux]
WINNER: Whoop and Shush by Jeff Baker
RUNNER UP: River Scar by Paul Martin
SHORT LIST: 88 Maps by Robert Carney; Our Hero: Artless Comix by Maura Stanton; [ganbatte]: Poems by Sarah Kortemeier; After the Three-Moon Era by Gary Fincke; Of Dust by Andrew Grace; To Hills by Haesong Kwon; East & West by Piotr Florcyzk; Animal by Michelle Burke; Meditations Before the Windows Fail by George Looney; Orpheus, Turning by Faith Shearin; We All Breathe the Same Sky by Donna Davis; Just Desserts by Michelle F. Cooper
2013 [Final Judge: Sam Hamill]
WINNER: The Gold Shop of Ba-'Ali by Yaya Frederickson
SHORT LIST: Cardinal Points by Sandra Larson; Web to Weave & Corn to Grind by Stephen Cramer; East & West by Piotr Florczyk; Tributaries by Laura Da’; Eventually Yours by Daniel Lusk; Church of Needles by Sarah Sousa; Back Room at the Philosophers’ Club by Christopher Buckley; After Fever by Danielle Deulen; After Lunch with Frank O’Hara by Craig Cotter; Sand Opera by Philip Metres; Unruined by Valerie Wallace; How We Bury Our Dead by Jonathan Travelstead; Mud Angel & the Last Mermaid by M.E. Silverman
2012 [Final Judge: Nance Van Winckel]
WINNER: Whelm by dawn longsinger
SHORT LIST: Church of Needles by Sarah Sousa; Birdello by Lauren Bower Smith
LONG LIST: The Night People Imagine by Lawrence Wray; At Fountain Nook by Joanne Lehman; Six by Julie Marie Wade; Buddha Doing the Breast Stroke by Anita Feng; The Eiger and Other Walls by Stanley Radhuber; The Course of the Telling by Randolph Thomas; Sampaguita by Angela Narciso Torres; In the Buddha Factory by Alan Soldofsky; There, Here by Stan Rubin; The Man Himself by Al Nyhart
2011 [Final Judge: Ray Amorosi]
WINNER: Old and Lost Rivers by J.T. Ledbetter
SHORT LIST: Notes from the Journey Westward by Joe Wilkins; What Does Lorca Own? by Katie Kingston
LONG LIST: The Evolution of the Genus Iris by Robert Michael Pyle; The Alp at the End of the Street by Gary Leising; Nemesis by Melanie Willette; The Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart by Carlos Reyes; Praise Nothing by Joshua Robbins; Be Seeing You, Empire by Stephen Danos; Oils and Salts by Niki Leopold; Variations on a Domestic Theme by Anna Lowe Weber; Sorry Motel by Amy Miller; In the Sadness Museum by Susan Thomas; Borrowed Tales by Deborah Woodard; Self-Deliverance by William Greenway; To Stave Off Disaster by Sarah Sousa; The Hand of Burning Prayers by Kirun Kapur
2010 [Final Judge: Thomas Lux]
WINNER: Oyster Perpetual by Austin LaGrone
SHORT LIST: Rust Fish by Maya Jewell Zeller; Between Their Bodies, A Space by Kasey Jueds; The History of Permanence by Gary Finke; Flight by Corrine Clegg Hales; The Eiger and Other Walls by Stanley Radhuber; Miracle Atlas by Jay Leeming; The One and Only Flamming World by David James; Letter from Paradise by Mary Ann McFadden; The Natural Order of Things by Cathy Carlisi; Children of Interrogation by Martin Ott; As If Returning Home by Jarita Davis; Surrounded by Owls by James McKean; Magdelana’s Passage by Jennifer Foerster; Mosslight by Kimberley Pittman-Schultz; Horses in the Cathedral by Kimberly Burwick; Girls on Land by Nicole Melanson; Freak Show by Valerie Bandura; Voodoo Inverso by Mark Wagenaar
2009 [Final Judge: Carolyne Wright]
WINNER: Frescoes by Stephen Gibson
SHORT LIST: Thunder Shakes the Snake: The Poetry of Cheng Hui by John Brady; Every Possible Blue by Matthew Thorburn
LONG LIST: Fur Traders on the Missouri by John Bensko; little lung damage by Esther Lee; We Are the Bus by Jim McKean; Animal Kingdom by Peter Munro; Radioactive City by Richard Robbins; Still-Life Breathing by Catherine Staples; Ragged Point Road by Joe Wilkins; Rust Fish by Maya Jewell Zeller
2008 [Final Judge: M.L. Smoker]
WINNER: Lucifer: A Hagiography by Philip Memmer
SHORT LIST: Troubled Tongues by Crystal Williams; Boys Whistling Like Canaries by Jorn Ake
LONG LIST: Kurosawa’s Dog by Dennis Hinrichsen; The Natural Order of Things by Cathy Carlisi; The Chapel of Each Day by Tim Skeen; Beautiful in the Mouth by Keetje Kuipers; Egoli Exhaustress by Matthew Gavin Frank; Dear Weather Ghost by Melissa Ginsburg; Basin and Plateau by Ian Harris; The Promise of a Field by Jessica Grant Bundschuh; Labor in Vain by Landon Godfrey; Lantern Puzzle by Ye Chun; The Empty Notebook by Susan Thomas; Catch Light by Sarah O’Brien; Folly by David Axelrod; Radioactive City by Richard Robbins
2007 [Final Judge: Robin Becker]
WINNER: Friendly Fire by Katrina Roberts
SHORT LIST: Past Eden by Alice Templeton; The Brother Swimming Beneath Me by Brent Goodman
LONG LIST: Self-Evident by Scott Hightower; Reflections in Blue by Carolyne Wright; Hyssop by Susanna Chidress;
Accidental Music by Anne Pitkin; Peacetime by Tim Skeen; Fugitive Dust by Kathleen Winter; The Natural Order of Things by Cathy Carlisi; Afraid the Future Burns by James Grabill; Nowhere by W.T. Pfefferle; Nervous Arrangement of Words Play House by Carol Guess; Stay by Kathleen McGookey; Hold Everything Down by William Notter; The Stones We Bring With Us by Carlos Reyes
2006 [Final Judge: Robert Pack]
WINNER: Retreats and Recognitions by Grace Bauer
SHORT LIST: No Sweeter Fat by Nancy Pagh; Union by Emily Raabe; Holding Time by Robert Carl Williams; Woman, Money, Watch, Gun by Carolyne Wright
2005 [Final Judge: Christopher Howell]
WINNER: Thistle by Melissa Kwasny
SHORT LIST: Landscape With Silos by Deborah Bogen; Instrumental Gods by Matt Donovan; Variations in the Key of Night by Stan Rubin; Other Americas by Richard Robbins; Sudden Anthem by Matthew Guenette; The Blue Cottage by James Brasfield; Hope by Judith Hemschmeyer; Difficult Beauties by Janet Wondra; So Many People Couldn’t Be Wrong by Laurie Blauner; Heat Lightning by Judith Skilman; This Brief Earth by Bern Mulvey
2004 [Final Judge: Marvin Bell]
WINNER: Hurry Back by Alvin Greenberg
SHORT LIST: Landscape with Silos by Deborah Bogen; The Devil’s Calligraphy by Matt Yurdana; American Common Prayers by Robert Brian Strong; These Blue Rooms by Laura Read; The Untested Hand by Richard Robbins; The School of Weeping by Jennifer Maier; Mister Five-by-Five by Philip Dacey; The Last Days of Elvis by D. James Smith; A Change of Maps by Carolyne Wright