Poetry Contests: Pros and Cons

Every other small magazine seems to have a poetry contest of one kind or another, whether it’s an “editor’s choice” for an individual poem or group of poems, a themed contest, or a competition offering publication for a chapbook or a full-length manuscript.  It’s one way for editors to drum up interest in the magazine and cultivate new subscribers.  Obviously, contests are also an alternative for new poets to attract the attention of editors and get their work published.  From my experience, I’d say that participating in contests has more pluses than minuses.  I’ll address the pluses first.

I’ve found that the prospect of entering a contest has motivated me to compose new work, revise and polish older poems, and to reconceptualize a manuscript.  Recently, I entered a contest that asked entrants to write poems using select words — the one that interested me was “sforzando.”  I didn’t have a clue what it meant but, looking it up, I found that it was a mark on sheet music “to make a strong, sudden accent on a note or chord.”  That one word was enough to inspire a short poem which I gleefully sent out along with the fee (more about those later).  It really wasn’t a very impactful poem and I wasn’t surprised to hear back in short time that it wasn’t a winner.  The good news, though, is that I still appreciated the poem for what it was, and more importantly, for what it might be.  It wasn’t showy, and it wasn’t emotionally riveting like many of the winning poems I’ve read, but with a little more work and a few more lines, it came into focus — much improved I think, and very much on theme for a new collection I’ve been working on.

Winning a contest generally comes with publication and often a cash prize.  But, it can also be a confidence booster.  Winning the Louis Award (Concrete Wolf Press, 2019) for my first full-length volume, Rumors of Wisdom, gave me the boost I needed to tackle a second volume, and a third.  Although I’m still revising and polishing both, I don’t think I would have gotten this far without knowing that someone out there found my work engaging enough to publish it.

One of the downsides to contests is that the entry fees seem to be going up and up.  I recently decided to forgo one that charged forty dollars, and find that it pays to shop around for a suitable contest that doesn’t drain your wallet, or better yet, one that’s free.  (For a list of free writing contests, visit www.https//jerryjenkins.com and www.https//trishhopkinson.com.)  Also, keep in mind that many publishing houses have no cost, open submission periods for manuscripts and don’t require that a writer have an agent.  These “over the transom” submissions may seem like a long shot, but definitely shouldn’t be ignored.  Other firms prefer to see a book proposal first.

The other problem with entering contests is learning how to spot illegitimate ones from the real thing.  The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (www.https//:clmp.org) discusses the importance of ethical guidelines for literary contests while recognizing that there is a range of ethical models.  Most legitimate contests post their standards along with guidelines — if they don’t, be wary of entering; one of the very real risks is that you may be signing away your future publishing rights by winning.  In her article, “Confessions of a Contest Junkie,” Carolyn Moore discusses the problem of poetry anthology “scams,” but just as valuable is her discussion of how to target your work for the right contest (www.https//winningwriters.com).

New Anthology Praised by American Library Association

The American Library Association’s BOOKLIST Magazine described the recently released anthology, Loon Magic and Other Night Sounds, as “uniquely tuned to the beauty and fear expressed in the night’s symphony…offering unexpected moments of connection and reconciliation.”  Kudos to Editor Whitney Scott of the TallGrass Writers Guild!