Does anyone know any online poem contest sites?

Question

I'm looking for a place to test my poem writing skills and poem.com says that it has innapropriate words (there are no innapropriate words). Does anyone know any other poem contest sites?

Answer 1

"Hi!"

"Good evening all!".

Just a pre warning.

Stay away from Poetry.com &  poetry lourates and please don't mistake it for poet lourate.

the previous guy before me has provided you with realy good lagitament sites. advise to follow his links.

Good luck

Cheers : )

Answer 2

poetry.com has a contest going on all the time.

Answer 3

Hi. I've entered many, many contests, but, strangely, it was before the Internet. If you want to start at the top, you can try Poetry Society of America. * The PSA or Poetry Society of America, with headquarters in New York, was founded in 1910 by Whitter Brynner, George Santayana, Jessie Rittenhouse and Edward Wheeler; early members including Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, and Carl Sandberg. The PSA was responsible for the creation of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Also, UCI, University of California at Irvine has a poetry arts festival annually, I think. I have provided the links to both below.

I mention these two because I have entered a bunch of contests, but I actually got awards from these two. They are really tough, and they are very elitist, I would call them, pejoratively, in the sense that they embrace the most modern styles only and will barely look at anything with rhyme and meter.

I have not entered any contests recently, but I have checked out numerous "so called" poetry sites on the Net, and all of the ones I checked we pretty much bogus, to use a term. So my conclusion was that it is very tough work nowadays, and you really have to checkout the organization. If they look "gimmicky", they probably are. There are literally "cyber tons" of sites that are really "pay to publish". They will publish you, anything you submit, if you buy the publication, which usually runs from $65 to, I don't know, they probably try to keep it under a hundred.

The really legitimate ones, you pay them a fee to enter, usually $10 to 30 or 25. And, some will get back to you with the results no matter what, and a lot will only contact you if you win an award.

The third link below, allpoetry, is a legitimate site that I have checked-out and registered, but I have not submitted any of my poems, I'm not sure why. I think it is because I don't want to spread myself too thin, plus I feel a little "anonymous" there. The anonymity is not usually an issue with contests. Of course, you're you don't know them, and they don't know you. But they are a, sort of, club, but they are big and organized in a way that just doesn't appeal to me.

All Poetry has a contests page, but I can't figure it out.

I have been concentrating on getting really involved here in the Yahoo forum, because I am learning so much by reading others' poetry and getting mine critiqued, that it has really stimulated my creativity, and I'm writing again, whereas I had stopped for a while. I personally need to be involved with others, at least for a while. Or, rather, I need to take advantage of this opportunity of getting to know people in the forum, making new friends, having a lot of fun, etc.

The last link is a poem titled “unless”. I posted when I was really mad at several people who had left rude answers to one of my prior poem postings. I was just so mad, that people could be that way that I posted it with a caption that expressed my anger. Nevertheless, this poem was picked-up by Down in the Country. They emailed me and asked me if they could publish it in their next book. They sounded very real and businesslike, so I responded "OK". They said it would be coming out in July.

I'm sorry that I have not given you a better list, but it's hard, and I thought I'd give you references that I have personal experience with, so I am highly confident in them.

Finally, I guess it is always possible, because it happened to me, that by posting your poems also here in Yahoo Questions poetry section that you would get noticed. It seems that at least one publisher scans the poems posted.

I have also just started a Yahoo Group, just to try and pull people together who want to be published. I would sincerely like to invite you to join the group, and in there, we can get to know each other, post lots of poems and take some time to discuss strategies for contests more. I'm adding the link to it after the one I said was last. So it is really the last link I have.

Answer 4

I don't know about contest sites but there are always contests listed in Poets and Writers Magazine that you can enter but I think an even better way to sharpen your skills is to find or create a critique group that looks at or listens to each others work either on-line or (preferably) in person and talks about what works and what doesn't.  There may be a writer's workshop or critique group where you live or you may find or create one on-line.  To find one ( if it's there) ask at your library or book store.  If there is an open-mike poetry night at a bookstore or coffeeshop in your area, the poets there might be a good starting resource.  I would also suggest my favorite book on writing poetry, The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser, a former Poet Laureate of the US and one of my favorite writers both of poetry and about it.  You can post here and sometimes get some help although I'm afraid most of the response is of the "I like it" or "I don't like it" variety.  I try to do some in depth critique when I catch a poem here.  If you post one, I'll respond if I see it.  Even when you find someone or a group or a contest, it's as my signature line says when I do critique.  Remember, all critique is opinion...  That means, in the final analysis, you have to decide based on everything you can learn from reading other poets, and reading about writing.  Critique can, and should, give you things to think about but it's your poem.

Good luck and keep writing!