Original & Junior Poetry Writing Contest
THE WEDNESDAY CLUB OF ST. LOUIS POETRY CONTESTS
Entry Deadline – February 1, 2024 • Awards Reception – April 10, 2024 at 1:oo pm
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.
MAIL TO:
Catherine Rankovic
ORIGINAL POETRY CONTESTS
3901 Sand Glade Trail
Pacific, MO 63069
EMAIL: Not available at this time
PRIZES: $500, $300, $150
JUDGE: GEORGE BILGERE
George Bilgere’s ninth book of poems, Cheap Motels of My Youth, will be published in March 2024. He has read his poems at the Library of Congress, New York’s 92nd Street Y, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Recipient of numerous national awards, grants, and fellowships including NEA and Fulbright, he teaches poetry at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.
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:
Kathy Holman
Junior Poetry Contest
2215 Derby Way
St. Louis, MO 63131
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: SUSAN ELIZABETH HOWE
Susan Elizabeth Howe is an emerita faculty member of the BYU English Department. She has published two collections of poetry, Stone Spirits, and this year, Infinite Disguises, published by By Common Consent Press. Her first book, Stone Spirits, won the Charles Redd Center Publication Prize. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Shenandoah, Atlanta Review, Western Humanities Review, and many other journals. She is currently the associate editor of BYU Studies. In the past, she has served as a contributing editor of Tar River Poetry; poetry editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and Literature and Belief; managing editor of the Denver Quarterly; and a board member of the Utah Humanities Council. She lives with her husband Cless Young in Ephraim, Utah. They have a cabin near Capitol Reef, and the redrock landscape often enters her poems.