Announcing the 2027 Harvard Review Chapbook Prize: In Translation
The Harvard Review Chapbook Prize is awarded biennially for shorter new works of poetry and prose. In 2027 the prize will be awarded for a prose work in translation—either fiction or nonfiction—of between 15,000 and 30,000 words. The winner will receive $500, publication of their work in a limited edition chapbook series, and an invitation to read at Harvard University. The shortlist and winner will be announced at harvardreview.org in the spring of 2027.
Contest Rules
Submissions must be made through Submittable from October 1 through December 15, 2026. Only prose submissions of between 15,000 and 30,000 words will be considered. Translations must be unpublished, and translators must include a copy of the original text and proof of permission to translate with their submission. Only one submission per person. No paper submissions. Entry Fee: $20. A limited number of fee waivers are available. Past and current affiliates of Harvard Review are ineligible to apply. Harvard Review complies with the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) contest code of ethics.
Our Judge
The Judge for the 2027 Chapbook Prize is Jeffrey Yang, translator of Bei Dao’s Sidetracks and City Gate, Open Up; Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo’s June Fourth Elegies; Ahmatjan Osman’s Uyghurland, the Farthest Exile; Su Shi’s East Slope; and an anthology of classical Chinese poems, Rhythm 226. He is also the author of the poetry collections Line and Light, Hey, Marfa, Vanishing-Line, and An Aquarium. He was a senior editor at New York Review Books for over ten years and is currently the editor-at-large for New Directions Publishing.
PREVIOUS CHAPBOOKS FROM HARVARD REVIEW
GUIVI: WHAT WE KEEP, WHAT WE BURN (2025)
by Susan Fox Rogers
RAPTURE: A NOVELLA (2023)
by Reid Sherline
Described by Judge Lily King as “A marvel of compression” and by the Santa Monica Review as a “very small book” that has made “an outsized contribution to the literature of dark, weird Southern California,” Reid Sherline’s stunning debut publication was the winner of the 2023 Harvard Review Chapbook Prize.
RENGA FOR OBAMA (2017)
by 200+ American poets
Edited by Major Jackson
In early 2017, Harvard Review poetry editor Major Jackson curated the Renga for Obama, an poetry project featuring over two hundred American poets writing in pairs. The project, which originally appeared online, was released as a limited edition chapbook in 2018. The full text can be read online here.
FUCKING RIGHT (1999)
by A. R. Ammons
An irreverent and humorous collection of poems by A.R. Ammons, one of our foremost environmental poets.
THE PAGANA: CHRISTMAS 1877 (1999)
by Tatiana Averoff
A winter’s tale by Greek author Tatiana Averoff that interweaves superstition and tradition to paint an evocative picture of a young girl’s Christmas.