The Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards are relatively large prizes given out each year to poets with unpublished manuscripts. In addition to the cash prizes, two winners get published by a university press.
The Crab Orchard Review, a biannual journal of creative works published by the Department of English of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and Southern Illinois University Press organize the competition, which gives out $3,500 to two winners. Winners must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
Prior to 2009, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards awarded a first place and a second place. These winners received different prize amounts, but all winning manuscripts were published by Southern Illinois University Press.
| Year | Co-Winner | Co-Winner | Judge | |
| 2013 | Dan Albergotti Millennial Teeth | TJ Jarrett ZION | Rodney Jones | |
| 2012 | Jeffrey Skinner Glaciology | Jason Sommer The Laughter of Adam and Eve | Cynthia Huntington | |
| 2011 | Jacob Shores-Arguello In the Absence of Clocks | Wally Swist Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love | Yusef Komunyakaa | |
| 2010 | Brian Barker The Black Ocean | Camille Dungy Smith Blue | Michael Waters | |
| Todd Hearon Strange Land | Jennifer Richter Threshold | Natasha Trethewey | ||
| Year | First Place | Second Place | Judge | |
| Alison Townsend Persephone in America | Jesse Lee Kercheval Cinema Muto | David Wojahn | ||
| Ciaran Berry The Sphere of Birds | Jake Adam York A Murmuration of Starlings | Cathy Song | ||
| Moira Linehan If No Moon | Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Red Clay Suite | Dorianne Laux | ||
| David Hernandez Always Danger | Susan B.A. Somers-Willett Roam | Leslie Adrienne Miller | ||
| Victoria Chang Circle | Greg Pape American Flamingo | Richard Cecil | ||
| Jon Pineda Birthmark | Lee Ann Roripaugh Year of the Snake | Ralph Burns | ||
| Elton Glaser Pelican Tracks | Patricia Jabbeh Wesley Becoming Ebony | Tim Seibles | ||
| Joy Katz Fabulae | Susan Aizenberg Muse | Maura Stanton | ||
| J. Allyn Rosser Misery Prefigured | Julianna Baggott This Country of Mothers | Rodney Jones | ||
| Oliver de la Paz Names Above Houses | Rodney Jones | |||
| Marilene Phipps Crossroads and Unholy Water | Elton Glaser Winter Amnesties | Lucia Perillo | ||
| Denise Duhamel Star-Spangled Banner | Richard Cecil In Search of the Great Dead | Rodney Jones |