The reading period for this year's Dogfish Head Poetry Prize runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

To enter, a chap-book length manuscript of poetry (about 34 pages of poetry) should be sent with two cover

The reading period for this year's Dogfish Head Poetry Prize runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

To enter, a chap-book length manuscript of poetry (about 34 pages of poetry) should be sent with two cover pages (one with the title and author's contact information, the other with just the title) and a check for $15.00 made payable to John Milton & Company Books, 104 Federal Street., Milton, DE 19968.

The fee is to help offset the extensive photocopying costs involved in a blind judging. Entrants will receive a copy of the winning chapbook.

Alternatively, contestants can send 10 copies of their manuscript, along with unattributed title page, and only one totle page with their name and contact information on it.

Those sending submissions should include a self-addresses stamped postcard for acknowlegment of receipt; manuscripts will not be returned. The winner will be notified by the end of September.

The winner must keep the fact of their winning confidential until the prize is awarded on the weekend of Dec. 5-7, at the Milton Theather in historic downtown Milton, DE.

The winner will receive 10 copies of the chapbook, two cases of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales and a check for $200; prize money and copies are in lieu of royalties on the first 200 copies published by Bay Oak Publishers Ltd., of Dover, DE.

The winner must agree to provide a number of photographs for potential use by the publisher and Dogfish Head for publicity purposes and must agree to appear in person to collect the prize. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Manuscripts will begin being reviewed in the order in which they are received.

The Dogfish Head Poetry Prize is open to the residents of the Delmarva Peninsula. After the field is narrowed by a committee of first readers, the five finalists will be submitted to eminent judges (poets not residinn in the Delmarva Peninsula) for ranking. This is a blind judging from start to finish.

For more information, please contact Jamie at John Milton & Co Books at 302-684-3514 or johnmiltonandco@earthlink.net.