The Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry is an annual award administered by the University of North Texas Press, a respected academic publisher with a longstanding commitment to poetry. The prize is named for Vassar Miller, a poet whose work often explored spiritual and existential themes, and it carries the weight of that legacy. Winning the prize entails a $1,000 cash award and publication of the manuscript by UNT Press, a significant step for a poet seeking a first book. The 2027 edition will be judged by the poet Adam Vine, whose aesthetic sensibilities will shape the selection. The series editor is John Poch, and the press has explicitly stated that current or former students or friends of either Poch or Vine should not enter, to avoid conflicts of interest. This indicates a rigorous ethical framework and a commitment to fair evaluation. The prize is open to poets who have not yet published a book-length collection of their own work; individual poems may have appeared in magazines or anthologies, but the manuscript as a whole must be unpublished in book form. Submissions are accepted electronically between September 1 and October 31, 2026, with a $25 fee. The winner will be announced by March 2027. The press requires numbered pages and a table of contents, and permits multiple manuscript submissions. This is a serious, professional opportunity for poets at the threshold of a book publication, and it warrants a carefully prepared, polished manuscript.