The Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize occurs each year in the fall. Fall 2024 winners will be published in the The Heartland Review Press Spring 2025 issue, which is mailed in May or early June.

Submit up to 3 poems to this contest. No picture poems or pdfs.

Writers must be over 18 and have a United States Postal Address. All submissions are electronic through Submittable.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but poems placed elsewhere will not be included in contest. Writers will need to withdraw their entire submission packet if published elsewhere. Money will not be refunded.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.