Second Annual Provo Poetry Contest–Cash Prizes!

Thank you for sending your short poems to help promote poetry in Utah! Winners will be announced in April and will be featured at Speak For Yourself Open Mic on April 18th.

DEADLINE: February 1, 2019

ENTRY FEE: Free to enter.

JUDGE: Paisley Rekdal – Utah’s current poet laureate

Paisley Rekdal was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee;  the hybrid photo-text memoir, Intimate; and five books of poetry: A Crash of Rhinos; Six Girls Without Pants; The Invention of the Kaleidoscope; Animal Eye, a finalist for the 2013 Kingsley Tufts Prize and winner of the UNT Rilke Prize; and Imaginary Vessels, finalist for the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Prize and the Washington State Book Award. Her work has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Residency, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Pushcart Prizes (2009, 2013), the AWP Creative Nonfiction Prize, and various state arts council awards. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, The New Republic, Tin House, the Best American Poetry series (2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018), and on National Public Radio, among others. She teaches at the University of Utah, where she is also the creator and editor of the community web project Mapping Salt Lake City. In May 2017, she was named Utah’s Poet Laureate.

PRIZES:

• 1st PLACE – $100 cash and an optional feature reading at Speak for Yourself Open Mic at Enliten Bakey and Café in historic downtown Provo
• 2nd PLACE – $50
• 2 HONORABLE MENTIONS: $25 gift certificate for Pioneer Book
• POEMBALLS: All poems entered into the contest will be considered for inclusion in POEMBALL machines in Provo and SLC

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

• Poets must have lived or spent significant time in Utah at some point in their lives.
• Poems must be appropriate for a general audience (rated PG).
• Provo Poetry is an all-inclusive community. Do not send poems with topics/speech related to hate, shaming, or cultural appropriation.

POEM LENGTH: Short poems of about 20 lines or less.

NUMBER OF POEMS: Send up to ten poems.

EMAIL POEMS: Send a single email with a separate attachment for each poem (up to 10 poems attached separately) to provopoetry@gmail.com.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: Previously published poems are permitted.

ACCEPTED POEMS: You will be notified via email if your poems are accepted for inclusion in the POEMBALL machines. POEMBALL machines are located at Pioneer Book and Enliten Bakery and Café in downtown Provo, as well as at KRCL 90.9 FM in Salt Lake City. Poets names will be mentioned on the poems.

Distribution methods may vary. No monetary payment will be provided to poets other than the winners as noted, but please know your contribution is important and appreciated! The key objective of Provo Poetry is to instill the love of poetry within the general community, bring poems to a wider audience, and to support local poets.