Conduit has long positioned itself as a press attentive to the singular texture of a poet's mind—its stated allegiances are to originality, intelligence, irreverence, and humanity, a quartet that reads less like a marketing slogan than a working editorial ethic. The Minds on Fire Open Book Prize extends that ethic into an annual open call, deliberately unsegregated by career stage: first books and last books are considered on the same plane, and the absence of a prior publication requirement makes the competition genuinely open rather than nominally so. The prize is judged by the Conduit editorial board, which means the winning manuscript will be one the press itself is prepared to stand behind as an object of enduring value, not merely a contest winner. What the winning poet receives is concrete: $1,500 and fifteen author copies, with publication in a high-quality edition. The anonymity requirement—no name on the title page or anywhere in the manuscript—is not incidental. It enforces a reading in which the work must carry itself, and it signals that the board's judgment is meant to rest on the poems rather than on reputation, biography, or prior institutional affiliation. An acknowledgments page listing prior periodical publication of individual poems is permitted and, where applicable, expected; the manuscript as a whole, however, must be previously unpublished. The submission window closes on November 5, 2026. There is a $25 entry fee. Current and former Conduit employees and interns are ineligible. Beyond these parameters, the press has kept the call deliberately unadorned—no theme, no aesthetic party line—which places the burden and the freedom squarely on the manuscript. Poets considering entry would do well to read Conduit's existing catalog before deciding whether their book belongs in conversation with it.