Nine Syllables Press

Nine Syllables Press (9SP) is a poetry press created in partnership with The Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. We seek to address ongoing inequity in the publishing world by providing a new platform for systematically excluded voices, including but not limited to women, BIPOC poets, and trans/LGBTQIA+ poets. 9SP honors and continues the long tradition of poets and poetry at Smith, including Sylvia Plath ’55, while extending that community to the other Seven Sisters colleges and beyond.

More About Nine Syllables Press
Adrie Rose talks to a class of students seated around a long table
A student holds up a photo of a chapbook cover

Chapbook Contest

Each fall, students in The Chapbook in Practice: Publishing read the manuscripts submitted to our annual contest, learn about the publishing industry, and narrow down the manuscripts to a top ten. Those top ten get sent on to our final judge, who selects the winner.

Each spring, students enrolled in The Chapbook in Practice: Design study book design and production. Each student creates an interior design and cover design for the winning chapbook.

Learn more about the Chapbook Contest.

Cover of My Hand Holding Tight My Other Hand

Design by Amelia Burton ’23
Cover of Desire / Halves

Design by Margaret Valle ’26
Cover of Sacred and Perishable

Design by Catherine Moyle ’27
Cover of Sentence

Design by Casey Simon MHC ’28

Tammis Day Prize

In 2026, Nine Syllables Press added our annual Tammis Day Prize, publishing a debut full-length collection by a woman poet aged 40 or older. This is the only prize of its kind, and we are so delighted for this opportunity to champion the work of older women poets. This prize is in the spirit of Smith’s Ada Comstock Scholars Program, which creates opportunities for older women students to complete their bachelor’s degree, as Tammis Day AC ’05 did.

The Tammis Day Poetry Prize recognizes that many factors delay women in their publishing careers, just as they can be delayed in getting their degrees, and celebrates the rich experiences and perspectives they bring to poetry. Manuscripts are read by a team of Smith alums, and the winner is selected by a final judge.

More About the Tammis Day Prize