Prism will be 10 years young in August 2023.
To celebrate this joyful decade of poetry publishing, we are throwing around poetry contests… and lots of dollars too!
We would like to thank the sponsors who made this possible, as well as all the faithful Prism members who keep trusting us with their poems, who consistently buy the books, notebooks and calendars, and who donate a few dollars or some of their time to keep the machine oiled and functional over time.
Categories
The Prism 10th Anniversary celebration consists of six contests, one for each of the following categories:
1 – Sonnets & Villanelles
2 – Short Rhyming poems (up to 19 lines)
3 – Long Rhyming poems (20 lines or longer)
4 – Short Free Verse (up to 19 lines)
5 – Long Free Verse (20 lines or longer)
6 – Haiku
Special styles or forms are allowed. Anything not foreseen in the above categories should be entered in categories 2 or 3, depending on length, for rhyming poems (like triolets, sestinas, trijan refrains, etc) or in categories 4 or 5, depending on length, for non-rhyming poems (acrostics, haiku chains, haibun, etc). Categories 1 and 6 are reserved for single sonnets or single villanelles and for single haiku.
Shape (concrete) poems are not allowed. Special formatting, vertical spacing or pictures will be ignored in the judging process.
Timing
The contests will run from June 15 to June 30.
The contests will be judged anonymously by poets and academics. Each judge will receive all the poems pertaining to their category by July 10 and will be expected to return their judgment by July 31.
The winning poems, as well as a good number of the finalists, will be published in the 10th Anniversary Edition of Prism (Prism #64 – August 2023) or any of the following editions.
Conditions to enter
There is no entry fee.
The contests are open to everyone.
Entrants will be considered only if they give Prism a correct e-mail address, as well as permission to publish. That permission applies to any poem submitted in any of the six categories.
Personal data will never be shared with anyone.
Judging
The judges are anonymous poets and academics.
Each category will be assigned one or two judges, depending on the volume. Each judge will read only one category.
The judges don’t know who is judging the other categories, and won’t discuss their decisions with anyone, except, obviously, when working in pairs and when reporting their results to the Prism team.
The judges will receive a single printable file containing the poems in random order, with a sequence number, a title and the poem text only. All poems will be left-aligned, and any special formatting or extra vertical spacing will be removed. Except for obvious typos, the poems will not be edited before judging. Author notes or pictures will not be transmitted.
Adult or overly political, religious, controversial or offensive poems, as well as poems that don’t fit the category, will not be considered for judging.
Prizes
The results will be announced by category, and each category will be awarded money prizes.
The total amount of $4000 USD will be split between categories depending on the volume and quality of winning poems (as decided by the judges).
The prizes will be paid through PayPal only, and in USD only. Please make sure you give us your correct e-mail address!
All set?
Click here to enter the contests:
Make sure you have all your poems in before you hit the submit button on the last page!
