The Hilary Tham Capital Collection (HTCC) features full-length collections from poets who volunteer to assist a literary organization or project.

Any literary nonprofit operating in America or Canada may nominate their volunteers to submit a poetry manuscript to the HTCC, an invitation-only judging process. Each nomination is good for two years, and poets can be nominated multiple times, as long as they continue to volunteer. (Organizations without nonprofit status may apply for permission to nominate a volunteer who has worked on a literary or literacy project that benefits the public without concern for financial profit.)

Nominees are invited to submit during the months of April and May, and their manuscripts will be reviewed by this year’s judge, Ariel Francisco Henriquez Cos. Past judges include Carolyne Wright, Jericho Brown, Eduardo C. Corral, Denise Duhamel, Cornelius Eady, Kimiko Hahn, Michael Klein, Timothy Liu, and Maggie Smith.

Up to three titles are selected each year for publication. A nomination form is available upon request to editor@WordWorksBooks.org. The $25 reading fee can be paid by either the nominating organization or the poet.

Nominations by April 30 if possible, please. (Later nominations are accepted if the organization notifies the poet.)

Poets submit by May 15. Results announced by October 15.

The Winners

A

Stain by Nathalie Anderson

B

Only Believe by Jennifer Bartell
Flesh That Was Chrysalis by Mel Belin
The Land is a Painted Thing by Carrie Bennett
Refuse to Disappear by Tara Betts
Judging the Distance by Doris Brody
Whiskey in the Garden of Eden by Sarah Browning

C

Pinecrest Rest Haven by Grace Cavalieri
to stir & by Nikia Chaney
By My Precise Haircut by Cheryl Clarke
Gilbert and Garbo in Love by Christopher Conlon
Mary Falls: Requiem for Mrs. Surratt by Christopher Conlon

D

Broken Like Job by Donna Denizé

E

Nothing Happened by W. Perry Epes
Seed by David Eye

G

The Scabbard of Her Throat by Bernadette Geyer
this body  / that lightning show by Elizabeth Gross

H

Twinzilla by Barbara G. S. Hagerty
Flint & Fire by Lisa Hase-Jackson
Eight Pale Women by James Hopkins

I

Chance Bodies by Donald Illich

J

Love’s Skin by Brandon Johnson

M

A pooka in Arkansas by Ed Madden
Aftermath by Thomas March 
Perpetual Motion by Marilyn McCabe
The Habit of Fire by Judith McCombs
Snake Country by James McEwen
in other words you/ by Kevin McLellan
The Bears of Paris by Miles David Moore
Rollercoaster by Miles David Moore
By the Nest by Kathi Morrison-Taylor

N

Around the Gate by M.A. Nicholson

R

Reading the Ground by Tera Vale Ragan

S

The Good Opinion of Squirrels by Michael Shaffner
Black Butterflies Over Baghdad by David Allen Sullivan

T

The Bodies We Were Loaned by Maria Terrone
Bad Names for Women by Hilary Tham
Counting by Hilary Tham

U

Charlotte Brontë, You Ruined My Life by Barbara Ungar
Immortal Medusa by Barbara Ungar

V

Blue Cowboy by Jonathan Vaile

W

Green Bodies by Rosemary Winslow
Transformer by Kathleen Winter
Immersion by Michele Wolf

Z

Covalence by Joe Zealber