Poetry Contest

Top Poems Get Cash Awards and
the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize

Deadline was August 31. Entries are no longer being accepted.

Cultural Weekly’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest and Open Submission Period has begun. It’s time to submit your poems before the August 31, 2014 deadline.

This year, we will be awarding the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, named in honor of great poet and teacher Jack Grapes, with cash prizes of $250 for first place, $100 for second place, and $5o for third place.

Over the past three years, Cultural Weekly has become one of the premiere places where poets share their work, and poetry-lovers share their comments. Cultural Weekly’s Poetry Contest allows new poets to be discovered, and established poets to share their work with expanded audiences.

“In last year’s poetry contest, we received over 350 poems from 120 poets from Malaysia, Ireland, Europe, Africa, Japan, the US and Canada,” said Cultural Weekly poetry editor Alexis Rhone Fancher. “With addition of the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, I am expecting even more exciting submissions than last year. I look forward to reading them all. I know I am in for an incredible ride.”

Poems will be read “blind,” so they may be evaluated without knowing who the author is.

The Rules

• You may submit up to 3 previously unpublished poems. What do we mean by unpublished? If it has appeared in any book, magazine or edited website, then it is published. Sole exception: if you have posted it only on your own blog or social media, and you take it down and leave it down, we will consider it unpublished.
• The poems may be of any length, and any style.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere for publication.
• You may only submit once during this period. Choose your best work!
• You MUST follow the following format rules. Submissions that do not follow these rules may not be considered.
• Submissions must be in .doc or .docx format. (No “pages,” “txt” “pdf” or other formats).
• Your submissions must all be in a single document. In other words, if you submit 3 poems, they should all be in 1 document, not in 3 separate documents.
• Pages must be numbered.
• Your name, address, phone number and email address must appear on the cover page. Include a brief bio.
• Email your submission to this email address only: contest@culturalweekly.com.
• Deadline is August 31st, 2014, midnight Pacific Time. No entries will be considered after that date.
• Your entry will not be acknowledged. Please do not query. Our poetry editor will contact all those who submitted with the results in due course. Your patience is appreciated.

*Poems accepted for publication will be featured in an upcoming edition of Cultural Weekly.

Photo by Alexis Rhone Fancher