Moon City Press

The editors at Moon City Press would like to congratulate Paul Martinez P***a of Elmurst, Illinois, for winning the 2025 Moon City Poetry Award for his collection Floor, My Floor, My Loyal Lover. Paul will receive the $1000 cash prize and his book will be published by MCP in early 2027.

Paul Martinez P***a lives and works in northeastern Illinois. He is the author of the chapbook, Pepper Spray (Momotombo Press). His first full length book, My Kill Adore Him, was selected for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize and published by University of Notre Dame Press. His second book, Domestic Co**se, was an honoree in the Midland Authors Awards and was published by Match Factory Editions. His poetry has been widely anthologized and was commissioned for a Chicago Public Radio project called "In Verse," which aimed to explore the emotional weight of gun violence. He is a Canto Mundo fellow and currently edits for Packingtown Review.

John Isles and Francine Witte are the runners up in the competition.

We would like to thank everyone who entered this year's contest, which always prompts so many amazing manuscripts. We wish everyone good luck with their manuscript and with all their writing endeavors.

Last day to enter the Moon City Press Moon City Short Fiction Award competition!

Moon City Press - The 2026 Moon City Short Fiction Award • The Moon City Short Fiction Award is for an original collection of short fiction, written originally in English by a single or collaborative author. • Individual pieces in the collection may be published in periodicals but not yet collected and published in full-length manuscript form. • Ent...

Ten days left to enter the 2026 Moon City Press Moon City Poetry Award competition!

Moon City Press - The 2026 Moon City Poetry Award • The Moon City Poetry Award is for an original collection of poems written in English by a single or collaborative author. • Individual poems in the collection may be published in periodicals or may have appeared in a chapbook, but poems should not be previously published in full-length manuscr...