Original & Junior
Poetry Writing Contest
THE WEDNESDAY CLUB OF ST. LOUIS
Entry Deadline – February 1, 2021 • Awards Reception – April 14, 2021 at 1:oo pm
The Wednesday Club will follow the County guidelines for Covid-19.
ORIGINAL POETRY CONTEST
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.
SEND TO:
Dr. Genie McKee
ORIGINAL POETRY CONTEST
2036 Trailcrest Ln., Apt. #4
Kirkwood, MO 63122
EMAIL: Not available at this time
PRIZES: $500, $300, $150
JUDGE: DANA LEVIN
- Dana Levin’s fourth book is Banana Palace (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), a finalist for the Rilke Prize.|
- Previous collections include In the Surgical Theatre, Wedding Day, and Sky Burial, which The New Yorker called “utterly her own and utterly riveting.”
- Recent poetry and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry, Poem-a-day, Boston Review, and Poetry.
- Levin is a grateful recipient of many honors, including those from the NEA, PEN, the Library of Congress, as well as the Rona Jaffe, Whiting, and Guggenheim Foundations.
- A teacher of poetry for over twenty-five years, Levin serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis. http://www.danalevinpoet.com/
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 Poetry Contest Entry Form
SEND TO:
Nan Starling
Junior Poetry Contest
14 Upper Conway Lane • St. Louis, MO 63017
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)
JUDGE: JUDGE CHRISTOPHER KEMPF
- Author of What Though the Field Be Lost and Late in the Empire of Men, which won the 2015 Levis Prize from Four Way Books
- Published poetry in Best American Poetry 2020, Boston Review, Georgia Review,
Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Georgia Review, The New Republic, PEN America, Plowshares, among others - Recipient of the Pushcart Prize, National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University
- Ph. D in English Literature from the University of Chicago and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Illinois