$3500 Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize (2025)
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The reading period for the Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize runs from September 21 to November 7 (LC’s birth anniversary to death anniversary).
$1000 will be awarded to a poem that explores the intersections of love, faith & sex. Ten finalists will each be awarded $250 (up from 4 finalists last year!)
➡️ Read More About the Prize & Ethos
📮 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES📮
- Send us up to 3 pages of poetry.
- Each poem starts on a new page.
- In the spirit of Leonard Cohen, we ask that your poems deal in some way with the intersections of Love, Faith, & Sex.
- Open to anyone writing in English, anywhere in the world (with a special encouragement to poets submitting from outside North America).
- We only accept previously unpublished work. Self-published pieces (blogs, social media, personal sites) are welcome, but poems published in journals, anthologies, or books are not eligible.
- Please withdraw your poems if they get accepted elsewhere.
- We love reading cover letters. You’re welcome to share your love for Leonard Cohen, or your publication history, if any, though these are read only after the decisions are made and do not influence the outcome. Please make sure that the document of your poems is stripped of any biographical information—use the cover letter field on Submittable for this.
- Submission Fee: $18
- Each submission comes with a one-month Best membership to Chill Subs and a one-month ONLY POEMS Membership. We want every poet who submits to our prizes to receive more than just a contest entry.
- If the fee is a barrier to you, please refer to out waiver policy here.
Judging process: Each submission is read by at least 3 readers. The ones that move to the next round are read by 5 more readers. Longlist is read by our full team of 35+ readers and Editors. Shortlist is discussed by the Editors. Final decisions for the winner & finalists are made by the Editor-in-Chief, Karan Kapoor.
Judging criteria: In evaluating submissions, we look for originality, emotional intensity, musicality of language, and a deep engagement with the themes of Love, Faith, and Sex.
Timeline: We respond to everyone before the end of this January. Winners and Honorable Mentions are announced and published in February.
Read our statement on Transparency & Fairness here.
PLEASE NOTE: The Leonard Cohen Family Trust does not endorse this award, ONLY POEMS, or the prize winners. It is due to their generosity that we are allowed to name this prize after Leonard Cohen, the Poet Laureate of the World