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  • Top to Bottom or Bottom to Top?

    A Young Poet’s Clever Verse Garners Worldwide Praise

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  • Second Contest Winner of 2014

    Jeffrey Magnuson of San Diego, CA

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  • First Contest Winner of 2014

    Sonya Troncoso of San Antonio, TX

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  • Contest Winners of 2013

    Daniel Edward Morris of Pittsburgh, PA, and Robyn Redding of Charlotte, NC

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  • Talent Trumps Temper Tantrum!

    2012 Grand Prize Winner Laura Leigh Packard

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  • Phenomenolgy in Form

    Commenting on his own poetry, Friedrich (Fred) Wurzbach admits, “I like the challenge of structure in meter and rhyme [….]… Read More

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  • Similitudes of Poetry and Songwriting

    Strategies and Ideas for Today’s Aspiring Songwriter

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  • Join Our Community on Facebook

    Meet Fellow Poets

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  • James Milliron

    August ’10 Grand Prize Winner

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  • Gottardo DiGiacopo

    December ’09 Grand Prize Winner

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  • July-December 2015 winners

    Check out our most recent winners!

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  • Alice P. Thomas

    September ’09 Winner of Eber & Wein’s National Amateur Poetry Competition

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  • Poems Sidebar

    This is a sidebar area for poems post type widgets.

  • RSS feed: Web News Web News

    • Peggy Jones Conyers Obituary - The Tuscaloosa News
    • Infinite Waves - Poetry Foundation
    • We Remembered Lew Welch: 1926-1971 - CounterPunch.org
    • 'LEAVE IT IN THE RICE FIELD' - NEW LYRICAL POETRY BOOK BY JAMEEL HAIAT - EIN News
    • Poet Len Pennie and Composer Paul Leonard-Morgan Discuss 'Delusions', and the joy of collaboration - snackmag.co.uk
    • Third Annual Nantucket Poetry Festival Keeps Focus Local - Nantucket Current


Poetry Contest Poetry Contest

  • PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK OF POETRY

    You can publish your own book of poetry for as little as $599! Click here to learn how.

  • Editor’s Note

    The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”

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