The Colrain

Poetry Manuscript

Conference

Focused entirely on book-length & chapbook-length poetry manuscripts

July 19, 2026

with

Carey Salerno

Poet, Executive Editor & Director at Alice James Books

Joan Houlihan

Poet & Founder, Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference

“I’ve been to Colrain twice and both times, within six months of attendance, I’ve had a manuscript win a book prize. Correlation may not be causation. But…”

“Gave me the support and insights into what editors really think that I never got in an otherwise excellent graduate program.”

“I regularly recommend Colrain to friends who don’t know where to turn with their manuscripts. As I work on my second book, what I learned at Colrain still guides me.”

“I have been to many conferences post -MFA and even since my first book; this was by far the most useful, pointed, effective. Don’t hesitate to go. Watching Joan Houlihan and Peter Covino respond to the manuscript was an education in contemporary poetry and a thrilling experience.”

“I have attended many many conferences and workshops while lurking through the swamps of arranging a manuscript, and the revelations of the time at Colrain were the most concrete realizations I have had in the past few years of this work. Thank you for providing the structure and guidance to allow epiphany.”

“There was a solid critical undertone that engaged the work on its own terms, but demanded that each poem lived up to the aesthetic contract laid out in the best of the manuscript. I felt welcomed and very comfortable…and the diversity was a real strength of the program. The conference EXCEEDED my expectations.”

“I learned far more about the editing process than I expected… It’s not just objective knowledge—it’s the whole background and seeing/feeling what an editor goes through with manuscripts. Fascinating, frightening in some ways, and definitely worth knowing!”

“Here were editors and poets offering us a rare and pure transparent glimpse into their editorial process and the thinking they do—a process poets aren’t often privy to. Their insight was so staggeringly dead-on, their critical connections so complex and instantaneous, that, frankly, I caught myself gasping a few times.”

"Magnificent and moving. The real deal."

"The structure and method of the conference--amazing and genius! I now have some clear ways to re-think and revise my manuscript."

Despite all the MFA programs, writing conferences, workshops, and retreats in existence, there is no other program or conference dedicated exclusively to delivering knowledge on the poetry manuscript editorial process.

The Colrain Conference sets poets with a manuscript-in-progress on a path toward publication with three days of expert analysis, feedback, and a live cold read of the manuscript. Poets also get a look into the publication world and make important contacts with leading editors, teachers, and publishers.

The Colrain Cold Read, included in the conference or taken alone as a one-day intensive, delivers a live, acquisitions style session with a press editor or publisher.

The Colrain Crucible, included in the conference or taken alone as a one-day intensive, delivers a manuscript-shaping session focused on selection, sequencing, and structural clarity.

Awards

So far, Colrain manuscripts have won these awards:

Akron Poetry Prize from University of Akron Press
Beatrice Hawley Prize from Alice James Books
Brittingham Prize
Crab Orchard Open Competition
Emily Dickinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation
Four Way Book Intro Prize
Levis Prize from Four Way Books
Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize from Persea Books
Marsh Hawk Press Prize

May Swenson Poetry Award
Nightboat Books Poetry Prize
T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize from Truman State University
The Bakeless Prize
The New Issues Green Rose Prize
The New Issues Poetry Prize
The Perugia Press Prize
The Vassar Miller Poetry Prize
White Pine Press Poetry Prize