The LemonLight
Prize
$3,000
Prize Fund · Anthology · Limited Edition
An annual poetry award celebrating brilliance, originality, and craft — honoring voices that illuminate the quiet distances between memory and renewal.
Submit Your WorkSubmissions open March 1 · Closes May 30, 2026
Awards & Recognition
Winner
- $2,000 Honorarium
- Publication in The LemonLight Anthology
- 3x Complimentary Copies
- Feature Interview
Honorable Mentions
- 4 x $250 Honorarium
- Publication in The LemonLight Anthology
- 2x Complimentary Copies
- Feature Interview
Contributors
- Publication in The LemonLight Anthology
- 1x Complimentary Copy
How to Enter
Prepare
Up to 5 unpublished poems, no page limit. Save as PDF or DOCX and remove any identification.
Submit
Use our secure submission portal to pay the $15 entry fee and upload your work.
Celebrate
Winners announced August 2026. Anthology published December 2026.
Meet the Judges
Leila Chatti
JudgeAuthor of Deluge (Copper Canyon Press). Winner of the Levis Reading Prize and Luschei Prize for African Poetry.
G. K. Allum
JudgeFounder & Executive Editor, Ink & Ribbon Press. Pushcart Prize Nominee. MFA candidate, Pacific University.
Luke Dunne
JudgeDeputy Editor, Ink & Ribbon Press. Published in The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, and The London Magazine.
Why “The LemonLight Prize”?
The name comes from G. K. Allum's poem Middlesex,
where the image captures the fragile hour between what was and what might be —
half dawn, half memory.
Lemonlight became a symbol for the press itself: the longing that lives inside all art, the desire to preserve what’s passing while still reaching for transformation. The prize honors poets who write from that threshold.
Enter the Prize
$3,000
Submissions close May 30, 2026. Open to poets writing in English worldwide.
Submit Your Work