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  • Poems Sidebar

    This is a sidebar area for poems post type widgets.

  • RSS feed: Web News Web News

    • A former poet laureate and a Pulitzer winner lead TS Eliot prize shortlist - The Guardian
    • Center for Writers hosts talks with Harvard University professor and poet Stephanie Burt - bupipedream.com
    • The Pleasures of Delayed Gratification - Los Angeles Review of Books
    • How Feminist Activist Robin Morgan Helped Preserve the Legacy of Sylvia Plath - lithub.com
    • A Spell of Memory with Poet and Artist Harriet Shenkman - Hamptons.com
    • Ellen Burstyn shares the importance of poetry - KTLA


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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