PHIL LIT Journal's 2026 Winter Poetry Prize is a focused call for a single poem, a constraint that places unusual weight on the submitted work itself rather than on the architecture of a portfolio. The journal's annual PHIL LIT PARAGON anthology serves as the destination for winning and shortlisted poems, situating the prize within a publication whose stated scope is literary and whose editorial posture is toward the poem as a discrete, finished artifact. The prize is administered online and open to writers over eighteen, without geographic restriction. The material terms are specific and modest: one winner receives $300, publication in the anthology, a mailed contributor copy, promotion through the journal's supported media outlets, and the invitation to judge the next cycle. Three finalists receive a $50 honorarium, anthology publication, and a contributor copy. Shortlisted poems are considered for anthology publication. The entry fee is $9.00 USD per submission, and multiple submissions are accepted, provided each is a new entry and contains one poem. The curatorial vision is legible in the guidelines: work must be in English or accompanied by a translation by the original artist; previously published work is excluded; AI-generated writing is not accepted; simultaneous submissions are permitted with immediate notification upon acceptance elsewhere. The prize thus positions itself within a traditional literary economy—original, human-authored, unpublished poems—while retaining the anthology as its central vehicle. The opportunity to judge the next cycle gives the winner a measure of editorial agency, extending the prize beyond a one-time award.