Pushcart Prize
Quick answer: The Pushcart Prize is an annual American anthology honouring the best poetry and prose from small presses. Learn how nominations work and what they mean.
The Pushcart Prize is an annual American literary award and anthology that honours the best poetry, short fiction and essays published by small presses during the previous year. Founded by Bill Henderson and first published in 1976, the anthology, titled The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, gathers the winning pieces into a single thick volume each year. For poets who publish in literary journals rather than mass-market outlets, it is one of the most recognisable honours available.
You will meet the phrase most often in poets' biographical notes, where 'Pushcart Prize nominee' appears with remarkable frequency. Understanding how the prize actually works helps you read those notes accurately, and helps you know what to celebrate when a nomination of your own arrives.
How Nominations Work
Small press and literary journal editors may nominate up to six works they published that year, in any mix of poetry and prose, with nominations due by the start of December. The prize's contributing editors, a large roster of past winners and respected writers, can also put work forward. From the many thousands of nominated pieces, the series editors select the winners that are reprinted in the next anthology.
Because every qualifying journal can nominate, the pool is enormous. Winning is rare and genuinely prestigious; being nominated is far more common, which is worth remembering when you write your own bio.
What a Nomination Is Worth
A nomination is a real compliment: an editor chose your poem over almost everything else they published that year. It is fine to mention it in a bio, and plenty of excellent poets do. Just keep the proportions honest. Selection for the anthology itself is the actual prize, and 'Pushcart Prize winner' should only ever mean that your piece was reprinted in the book.
Why It Matters to Poets
The Pushcart's whole premise is that important writing comes from small, independent publishers, not only from famous magazines. Early anthologies helped bring writers like Raymond Carver wider attention, and the series has stayed loyal to little journals for five decades. For a working poet, that premise is encouraging: the path to recognition runs through exactly the kind of small journals that are open to newcomers, and through contests that read blind. Writory's monthly contest works on the same faith, scoring every entry on craft rather than on the name attached.
What poets can take from this
- List a nomination as 'nominated for a Pushcart Prize', never as a win, and drop the count once you have stronger credits.
- Publish in small presses and journals you admire; only work they published can be nominated.
- Do not ask an editor for a nomination; they know the deadline and choose freely.
- If you edit a journal yourself, nominate thoughtfully by December 1 so your contributors benefit.
- Read a recent anthology to calibrate your sense of what wins.
Try it yourself
Read the biographical notes of five poets in any journal and notice which credentials appear. Then write a poem about ambition that never names an award, using one concrete image of pushing something heavy uphill, invented by you.
Questions
Does a Pushcart nomination mean I almost won?
Not quite. It means an editor selected your piece as one of up to six nominations from their journal that year. Thousands of pieces are nominated across all presses, so a nomination is a genuine compliment from your editor rather than a near-miss at the prize.
Can self-published poems win a Pushcart Prize?
No. The prize honours work published by small presses and literary journals, and nominations come from those editors. To be eligible, place your poem with a qualifying press first.
Is there prize money with a Pushcart Prize?
The main reward is reprinting in the annual anthology and the lasting credential, not a cash award. Its value lies in prestige, visibility and the company your poem keeps in the volume.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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