The Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize is an award for a first book of poetry, housed and managed by the University of New Hampshire's English Department. It recognizes a U.S. poet of genuine promise whose debut full-length collection was published in the previous calendar year, defined here as January 1 through December 31, 2026. The prize carries a $10,000 honorarium, a headline reading at the Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival held at the University of New Hampshire on April 16–17, 2027, and promotion of the poet and their book leading up to the Festival and beyond. The final judge for this cycle will be announced in September. The eligibility parameters are precise: the submitted work must be a full-length poetry collection of 48 pages or more with an ISBN, published between January 1 and December 31, 2026, and it must be the author's first full collection. Entering the prize implies a willingness to attend the Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival in Durham, New Hampshire, on April 16–17, 2027, and to participate in the headline reading. The honorarium is awarded in exchange for or after appearing at the Festival; if funds are needed to assist with travel, arrangements are addressed separately. There is no submission fee. The prize is not a publication opportunity but a recognition of a book already in the world, and its institutional home within a university English department lends it an academic seriousness rather than a commercial one. The curatorial vision is thus retrospective and celebratory: to identify a debut of consequence and to give it a platform at a dedicated festival.