Donald Justice Poetry Prize

The Donald Justice Poetry Prize is a prestigious national competition sponsored by the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards of the West Chester University Poetry Center. It has been given annually since 2006 to an American poet for an unpublished book-length manuscript of formal poetry.

Each year, one manuscript is selected for the award and is published in the spring. The submissions are judged blindly and selected by a notable poet who works in traditional forms. Past judges have included Erica Dawson, David Mason, A. E. Stallings, and Marilyn Nelson.

The winner receives $1,500 and will have the manuscript published by Autumn House Press. Prior to 2018, winning poetry collections were either published by Measure Press or West Chester University. The award is presented at the annual West Chester University Poetry Event each spring.

Past winners
The following are the winners of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize:
 * 2006 Kate Light, Gravity's Dream: New Poems and Sonnets
 * 2007 Kim Bridgford, In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records
 * 2008 John Poch, Two Men Fighting with a Knife
 * 2009 Julie Kane, Jazz Funeral
 * 2010 Ned Balbo, Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems
 * 2011 Amit Majmudar, Heaven and Earth
 * 2012 Joanna Pearson,  Oldest Mortal Myth
 * 2013 Anne-MarieThompson, Audiation
 * 2014 Susan McLean, The Whetstone Misses the Knife
 * 2014 Stephen Gibson, Rorschach Art Too
 * 2015 Jeff Hardin, Restoring the Narrative
 * 2015 Pat Valdata, Where No Man Can Touch
 * 2017 Ryan Wilson, The Stranger World
 * 2018 Chad Abushanab, The Last Visit
 * 2019 Katherine Barrett Swett, Voice Message
 * 2020 John Foy, No One Leaves the World Unhurt
 * 2021 Alexis Sears, Out of Order
 * 2022 J. D. Debris, The Scorpion's Question Mark
 * 2023 Erica Reid, Ghost Man on Second