Original & Junior Poetry Writing Contest

THE WEDNESDAY CLUB OF  ST. LOUIS POETRY CONTESTS

Entry Deadline – February 1, 2027 • Awards Reception – April 14, 2027 at 1:oo pm

 ORIGINAL POETRY CONTEST
Contest Opens November 1, 2026

 

ELIGIBILITY

  • Adults over 18; living within a 50-mile radius of St. Louis.
  • Any person having won first prize in the contest twice within the last five years is ineligible for further cash awards but may be cited for honors.

RULES:

  • Submit TWO TYPED COPIES of TWO poems, which have never been published or won an award.
  • Use 8 1/2 x 11 paper with no more than one poem to a page.
  • Sign with pseudonym ONLY.
  • Type real name, address, e-mail address and telephone number on a separate sheet of paper and enclose with poems.  No manuscripts returned.

MAIL TO:

Catherine Rankovic
ORIGINAL POETRY CONTESTS
3901 Sand Glade Trail
Pacific, MO  63069

EMAIL:  Not available at this time

PRIZES: $500, $300, $150

2027 JUDGE HEATHER TRESELER:

author of Auguries & Divinations

won the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award, the May Sarton Prize, and the Sheila Motton Book Award

won an international chapbook prize for chapbook Parturition

poems appear in Harvard Review, The Iowa Review, The Irish Times, Kenyon Review, and American Scholar

won a Pushcart Prize, the W.B. Yeats Prize, Narrative’s poetry prize, and the Editors’ Prize from The Missouri Review.

professor of English at Worcester State University and a scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.

 

 

 

 

 

   JUNIOR POETRY CONTEST

 

ELIGIBILITY

  •  High School Students in Grades 9 through 12 in the St. Louis Area

RULES:

  • Entries must be submitted through the English Department.
  • Entries must be submitted with an English teacher’s signature indicating approval of the content.
  • Each student must submit TWO copies of TWO original poems, one per page, signed with a pen name along with one completed official entry form per student.

FOR ENTRY FORMS OR QUESTIONS

Junior Contest Entry Form in Word format

 Junior Contest Entry Form in .pdf format

MAIL TO:

Eileen Carr
Junior Poetry Contest
5 Muirfield Lane
St. Louis, MO  63141

STUDENT PRIZES: $200,  $150,  $100, $80, $50, and up to five $25 honorable mentions

TEACHER AWARDS: $200, $150, $100

(Applies to teachers of first three student winners)

2027 JUDGE  WALTER CANNON: 

Featured in numerous publications including Nimrod

Mid American Review, The Blue Earth Review

Author of The Possible World chapbook

Professor Emeritus of English at Central College in Iowa

Native Minnesotan