Contests are held for members in conjunction with each gathering to give opportunity and encouragement to keep writing and to receive constructive feedback, recognition, and deserved praise from knowledgeable judges. Subject, form, and line limit for contests are announced in the preceding newsletter. Contest deadlines are always postmarked 1 month before the next meeting. Poems are sent anonymously to judges who make written decisions and comments on each entry, to be presented orally at the meeting. Judges' choices of the top three entries in each contest are recognized with certificates, cash awards, and publication in the newsletter. Honorable mentions are awarded certificates and published in the Stanza if space allows.

CONTEST WINNERS of September 2018 Contest
Subject Poem: A poem of no more than 30 lines that has to do with some aspect of place or its reverse, displacement, judged by Linda Aldrich.

Winners:

1st Prize: Letting Go – Jenny Doughty
2nd Prize: NOLA: It’s Not About Beads – Tammi Truax
3rd Prize: Port Judith Rhode Island, 1953 – by James Breslin

Honorable Mention:

Afterlife – Karen Farrell
Early Sunday Morning – Jim Brosnan
Genie – Carl Little

Details of the April Contest are available in the December issue of the Stanza.

The Maine Poets Society Prize Poem Contest 2019

The Maine Poets Society is proud to present our second annual $100 prize poem contest. This year we are also offering a $50 prize to Maine poets who have not been previously published. Publication in a newsletter or an online workshop does not count for this purpose.

The contests are open to all Maine residents, including seasonal. If your entry will be postmarked out of state, please enclose a letter verifying your address when resident in Maine. Entries must be postmarked between February 19th and March 30th 2019.

There is a $5 entry fee for the $100 prize poem contest, and a $2.50 entry fee for the $50 contest for previously unpublished poets. A maximum of 4 entries for each is permitted, but each entry must be covered by an entry fee.

Topic and form are left open to the poet’s judgment, but there is a limit of 50 lines. Entries exceeding the limit will be disqualified. Previously published poems are not permitted.

Our distinguished judge in 2019 for the $100 prize poem contest will be Gibson Fay LeBlanc, director of The Telling Room, and winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry 2011. Board members of the Maine Poets Society will judge the contest for previously unpublished poets. The winner will be published in MPS’s newsletter, Stanza.

Our prizes will be presented at the 2019 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance awards evening, on Thursday, June 13th in Portland. The shortlists will be announced beforehand by email.

Please send two copies of your poem, one of them identified with your name, contact details (mailing address, email address and telephone number) and which contest you are entering, and one with no additional information on it, to MPS President Jenny Doughty, at 31 Rustic Lane, Portland, ME 04103. Mark your envelope CONTEST.

Enclose a check payable to Maine Poets Society, with ‘Contest entry’ on the memo line. Entries will not be returned, so please retain a copy.