WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE
TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.The Connecticut Poetry Society sponsors these poetry contests:
The Connecticut Poetry Award
The Al Savard Memorial Poetry Contest
April 1, 2010 to May 31, 2010
Accepting Submissions
for Guidelines Click Here
March 1 2010 to April 30, 2010-Currently Accepting Submissions
Guidelines Click HereThe Connecticut River Review Contest
DEC 1, 2009 to FEB 28, 2010 - CLOSED
2010 WINNERS Click HereThe Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest
DEC 1, 2010 to MARCH 15, 2010- ClosedCONNECTICUT RIVER REVIEW POETRY CONTEST
Open to all poets. NEW GUIDELINES AND PRIZE AMOUNTS
Contest Over: Dec. 1, 2009- Feb. 28th 2010
Prizes of $400, $200, and $100. Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 80 line limit each. Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact info and one with NO contact info. Both copies should be marked CRR Contest. Include SASE for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or electronically following notification. Send fee of $15 for up to three poems; make check out to Connecticut Poetry Society. Prize winning poems will be published in Connecticut River Review.. Send submissions to CT River Review Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.
WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.
Winners 2010
Connecticut River Review Poetry ContestThe Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest. From a very strong field of submissions, judge James Finnegan selected these poems:
1st prize: Rosanna Young Oh for “Landscape with Monk and Sea”
2nd prize: Colette Gill for “Ballad of Tsvetaeva”
Honorable Mentions: JoAnne Bauer for “Mother Mine,” Sharon Charde for “Get Lost,” Jack Cooper for “Posturing,” Pat Hale for “Table for One,” Ruth Hill for “Public Inquiry,” Margaret Iacobellis for “The Winner,” Alvin Laster for “Blind Child at the Piano,” Kolette Montague for “Dawn After a Sleepless Night,” Korkut Omaran for “Sketching Instructions for Travelers,” J. Stephen Rhodes for “Crows” Julia Simpson for “Learning How to Paint Light,” Mark Taksa for “In Praise of Using,” and Elaine Zimmerman for “Speaking Truth.”
Judge Finnegan said of the first prize poem “the difficulties of teaching across a language barrier are neatly explained in terse sentences that mirror the act portrayed in the poem.” His comments on the other winners: “Landscape with Monk and Sea manages to make new that long tradition of poems (and of art) that involves that very human act of staring out to sea.” About Ballad for Tsvetaeva he said, “The jagged rhyme and fitful imagery give emotional immediacy to the Russian poet’s life and times.” He chose a large number of honorable mentions because the overall quality of submissions was so high and these poems are “all worthy of praise.”
About the judge: James Finnegan is co-editor of Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens and is president of the Hartford organization: Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens.
Open to Connecticut high school students only (grades 9 - 12)
Dec. 1, 2009 to - March 15th 2010 Deadline -closed
Winners 2009/2010 contest:
The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest for high school students. Judge Marilyn Johnston selected these poems:
1st prize: “Rome” by Lindsey Pellino of Vernon
2nd prize: “Harvest” by Cara Dorris of Glastonbury
3rd prize: “so much happens in my head” by Courtney Littlewood of Mystic
Honorable Mentions: “In Homage to M.C. Escher” by Timothy West of Vernon and “Free Fall” by Alison Steed of Vernon
Judge Marilyn Johnston commented, “It was difficult to make the final choices; I am glad to see the art of poetry is thriving among so many talented practitioners in our high school population.”
On the first prize poem, Johnston said, “This poem stood out strongly for its originality, imagination, and broad sensibility. This poem is ambitious, risky, yet successful because of the truly beautiful music of its short and long lines and the profoundly thought-provoking statements and images this voice speaks…a tour de force.”
Comments on the other award winners: Regarding the second prize poem, Johnston commented, “I was very impressed by the deft handling of memory and subtle shifts of time in this poem.” Miss Johnston said that the third prize winner bonds love and fear together in “a tension that runs throughout…the central image is unforgettable.” In describing the honorable mention poems, she used words such as vivid, imaginative, well-written, dramatic, and moving.
Judge Marilyn E. Johnston’s books, Weight of the Angel and Silk Fist Songs were published by Antrim House Books. She directs a popular reading series in the Bloomfield Public Libraries for Connecticut poets.Prizes of $75, $50, and $25. This contest was established to honor Lynn DeCaro, a promising young CPS member who died of leukemia in 1986. Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 40 line limit each. Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact info and one with NO contact info. Both copies should be marked DeCaro Contest. Include SASE, a stamped, self-addressed, stamped envelope, for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or electronically following notification. There is no entry fee for this contest. Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Run. Send submissions to Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.
WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.
AL SAVARD MEMORIAL POETRY CONTEST Open only to Connecticut poets. Free for CPS Members Submit poems: March 1- April 30th 2010 (postmark) Prizes of $150, $75, and $50. Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 40 line limit each. Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact info and one with NO contact info. Both copies should be marked Savard Contest. Include SASE for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or electronically following notification. Send fee of $10 for up to three poems; please make check out to Connecticut Poetry Society. There is no entry fee for CPS members. Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Run .Send entries to Al Savard Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.
2010 Al Savard Judge: John Stanizzi teaches English at Manchester Community College and Bacon Academy. In 1998 The New England Association of Teachers of English named him The New England Poet of the Year. His books include Sleepwalking, Ecstasy Among Ghosts, and a chapbook called Windows.
WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.
Judge for the 2009 Al Savard Poetry Contest was Charles Rafferty
The Connecticut Poetry Award, honoring founders Winchell, Brodine and Brodinsky Formerly the BRODINE/BRODINSKY POETRY COMPETITION & WALLACE WINCHELL CONTESTS.
Open to all poets.
Submit poems: April 1- May 31 2010 (postmark)
Prizes of $400, $200, and $100. Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 80 line limit. Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact information in the upper right hand corner and one with NO contact information.Include SASE for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or email following notification.Fee $15 for up to 3 poems. Please make out check to Connecticut Poetry Society.Send submissions to: [name of contest], CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127Prizes of $400 $200, $100 will be awarded.Winning poems will be published in Connecticut River Review. Send submissions to The Connecticut Poetry Award, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127
Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.
Judge for the 2010 CT Poetry Award Dana Sonnenschien will be judging the CT Poetry Award contest. She is the author of two poetry collections: Natural Forms and Bear Country, as well as two chapbooks. She is a professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University.
WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.
Winners of the Connecticut Poetry Award 2009
The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 Connecticut Poetry Award. From a large, very strong field of submissions, Judge Jack Bedell selected these poems:
1 st prize: “Moonshine” by Courtney Sender of Montvale, New Jersey
2 nd prize: “The Facts” by Pat Hale of West Hartford, Connecticut click here to view the poem
3 rd prize: “The Green Sweater” by Sharon Charde of Lakeville, Connecticut click here to view poem
Honorable Mentions : “Burnt Toast and Heavy Starch” by Loretta Diane Walker, “Punk Portrait” by Helene Pilibosian, and “The Foreclosure” by Lee Alexander
Mr. Bedell admired the first prize poem’s “sense of ambition and daring.” He went on to say that the poem showed “fresh language and a rare combination of fearlessness and accuracy. The leaps between movements are just brilliant…”
Second prize poem “ The Facts” demonstrates a “flawless marriage of memory-driven narrative and lyric beauty…the poet has a phenomenal sense of line and a consistency of tone…I was absolutely enthralled by the movement of the poem…”
“The Green Sweater,” Mr. Bedell said, managed to sustain “narrative rhythm in a short-lined poem…the language is pitch-on, and the focus (image-by-image) is exactly where it needs to be to keep the reader inextricably involved in the scene.”
Judge Jack Bedell is the Woman’s Hospital Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as editor of Louisiana Literature and director of Louisiana Literature Press. His most recent books are Come Rain, Come Shine ( Texas Review Press) and French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (LaLit Press).
CPS CONTESTS: HOW ARE THEY JUDGED?
PROCESS FOR CHOOSING JUDGES
Judges are selected by the president in consultation with the contest chair and/or the board. Judges will be announced on the website and on flyers announcing contests. Judges receive a nominal stipend.
PROCESS FOR JUDGING
Each entrant sends in two copies of a poem: one with contact information and one without. The Contest Chair separates the poems and marks the anonymous copies with numbers. Judges are asked to name a first, second, and third place winner and may also select up to three honorable mentions. Winning poems are then submitted to the contest chair, who notifies winners and those who have submitted a SASE.
NUMBER OF ENTRIES
This varies widely, but in recent years between 50 and 120 different poets have participated in each contest, sending in up to three poems each. The DeCaro and Dehn contests typically get fewer submissions than the other competitions.
PUBLICATION OF WINNERS
The winners of the Connecticut River Review Contest, the Brodine/Brodinsky Contest, and the Wallace W. Winchell Contest are published in Connecticut River Review. Winners of other CPS contests are published in Long River Run. Although honorable mentions are not published, the poets' names and titles of their poems are printed.
RECENT JUDGES FOR CPS CONTESTS
Judge for 2009 Decaro Contest: Bessy Reyna is an opinion columnist for the Hartford Courant. Her poems and stories are found in U.S. and Latin American literary magazines and anthologies. Reyna’s latest book, The Battlefield of Your Body , a bilingual poetry collection, was released in June, 2005 by the Hill-Stead Museum
Brodine / Brodinsky Poetry Competition, 2007: Steve Straight, professor of English and director of the poetry program at Manchester Community College, author of The Water Carrier. Straight has directed the Connecticut Poetry Circuit and the Seminar Series for the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.
Al Savard Memorial Contest, 2007: FAITH VICINANZA, published poet, photographer, literary events manager, and information technology consultant.
Connecticut River Review Contest, 2007: ELOISE BRUCE, author of Rattle (Cavankerry Press), active in organizations related to theater, poetry, education, and social justice.
Lynn DeCaro Contest, 2007: RAVI SHANKAR, Poet-in-Residence and Professor at Central Connecticut State University and founding editor of the online journal http:..www.drunkenboat.com. His first book of poems, Instrumentality (Cherry Grove, 2004), was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Awards.
Dehn Competition, 2007: NORAH POLLARD, author of two books of poetry, Leaning In and Report from the Banana Hospital (both published by Antrim House), and recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize.
Wallace W. Winchell Contest, 2007: Vivian Shipley is the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and the Editor of Connecticut Review from Southern Connecticut State University. She has published five chapbooks and her seventh book of poems, Hardboot: Poems New & Old, (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2005) won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writ! ing. Sh e won the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Literary Community from the Library of Congress Connecticut Center for the Book and the 2005 SCSU Faculty Scholar Award. Gleanings: Old Poems, New Poems (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2003) won the Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. When There Is No Shore, also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won the 2003 Connecticut Book Award for Poetry from the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the 2002 Word Press Poetry Prize.
The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest. From a very strong field of submissions, Judge Brian Clements selected these poems:
1 st prize: “I’ll Know the Title Next Time I Hear the Train Whistle” by Mark Wagenaar of Charlottesville, Virginia
2 nd prize: “ Nome” by Jeanne Wagner of Kensington, California
3 rd prize: “How to Teach a Child about Death” by Amanda Auchter of Houston, Texas
Honorable Mentions: “Prequel to Genesis and the Missing Second Book: Coral Castle” by L. Christain, “A Shadow Denser than Night” by Robert J. Enright, “crow valley” by Elizabeth Myhr, “Subject Line: Rain is General” by Susan Holahan, and “Forgettery” by Kathleen Serocki.
Mr. Clements stated that first prize poem “ seduces with its depth of imagination, mythology of mind, and clarity of vision. The poem’s landscape… is lushly imaged, but also lushly aligned with the inscape, where distance and blossom and trains and a ringing bell all signal the simultaneous beauty and melancholy…”
His comments on the other winners: “ Nome ” succeeds, like John Ashbery’s “Instruction Manual,” by taking us in vivid detail to a place where the author or speaker is not and perhaps never has been…making quite present an absence, making us feel intimately the loss of a thing never held.”
“How to Teach a Child about Death” makes intimate and tender again a moment that verges on the cliché, the sentimental; but the poet’s alert attention to the body, whether living or dead, and to the things that grab the attention of the living--butterscotch, braids, a corpse’s stitched lip--keeps this poem vital…”
Judge Brian Clements is Professor of Writing at Western Connecticut State University and coordinator of WestConn’s MFA in Professional Writing. He edits Sentence: a journal of prose poetics and Sentence’s parent press, Firewheel Editions. His most recent books are Disappointed Psalms (Meritage Press) and And How to End It (prose poems from Quale Press).
Winners of this contest should find their prize money included with this notice. They are asked to submit the winning poems electronically to connpoetry@comcast.net so that they will be included on the web site and in the next issue of Connecticut River Review, which is sent free of charge to all CPS members. CRR is generally published in late summer, so look for it then. Additional copies may be ordered by sending a check for $10 (made out to CPS) to CRR Order, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.
Kudos to the winners and many thanks to all who entered; the level of the writing was high. You can find out more about our contests and publications at www.ct-poetry-society.org.
Poetry Critique Checklist
Before you send a poem somewhere consider these items:
Theme or Essence
What is the core truth of this poem?
Does it come across clearly? Is it memorable?
Would you want to read this poem again?
Could you imagine its meaning changing over time?
Story
Is there a clear story?
Too much? Too little?
Are there any parts left out? Is there something more you want to know?
Can the reader relate to the story on some universal level?
Does any part of the poem distract you, confuse you, or otherwise take you “out” of the poem?
Does the poem “show” instead of “tell”?
Length
Is the poem too long? Does it end before the end? Where?
Are there lines/stanzas that could be removed?
Imagination
Is there something new or fresh about the poem?
Does it use a novel image or analogy?
Are the images concrete, with sufficient detail?
What is the dominant feeling or emotion of the poem?
Meter/rhyme/word choice/line breaks/punctuation
How does the poem look on the page? Is it in balance? If not, is this purposeful?
Does the pacing serve the purpose of the poem?
Are there any words that are hard to pronounce, that stop the flow, or that you do not understand or recognize?
Are line breaks and punctuation consistent? Do they serve the purpose of the poem?
Music
Do the words flow musically, harmonically?
Does the poem use alliteration, repletion, etc. effectively?
Is the poem beautiful (or terribly beautiful)?
Complexity, novelty
Does the poem have range?
Is it clever?
Does it work on multiple levels?
Is there a turn, or surprise at the end? Is it effective?
Is the poem unpredictable?