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Contests

September Members-Only Contest

(REMINDER: Submission to a contest constitutes permission to publish.)

Deadline: August 27, 2025

Contest details can be found in the July issue of theStanza.

Contest Poem—Prose Poem Portrait. Using the example of “Iris,” write a prose poem portrait of your own. Can be of a person or a part of a person (hands, eyes, face, hair, etc.) You may also choose to write a self-portrait prose poem. Do NOT simply describe the person/thing about which you are writing! Use direct metaphor, as in the example. Make sure that your poem is a block, using a right-justified margin. There is a story behind every portrait, even if the portrait is not of a whole person. Use poetic language to tell that story. Examine the sample poem, “Iris,” to see how it is done.

Winners of our May 2025 Members-only Contest

Contest: Employ anaphora to create a nature-themed poem.
Judge: Dr. Jim Brosnan

First Place –“Under Cetus,” Diane Hunt
Second Place –“The Wood Thrush Sings,” Nancy Sobanik
Third Place –“Grafted,” Jenny Doughty

1st Honorable Mention –“In the Forest,” Linda Spalding
2nd Honorable Mention –“Incoming Tide,” Laura West
3rd Honorable Mention –“Manifesto,” David Sloan

 

PRIZE POEM CONTEST INFORMATION

The Board of Maine Poets Society had hoped to share this month an announcement about this year s Maine Prize Poem, a state-wide writing contest we have offered since 2018. Unfortunately, we ve had to make the difficult decision to suspend this contest for 2025. For the last six months we have been unable to fill vacancies on the Board, so right now we do not have the necessary staffing to publicize, organize, and judge submissions with all the attention that our regional poets and poetry deserve.

Therefore, there will be no Maine Prize Poem opportunity this year. However, we hope to reinstate the contest in the future. We especially encourage those poets who could have entered in the previously unpublished category to keep writing with a future contest entry in mind. We wish continued success to those poets eligible for the published category.

We encourage you to follow Maine Poets Society on social media to learn more about the opportunities we can support for Maine s poetry community, including members-only contests, workshops, readings-in-the-round, and more. If you re not yet a member, we invite you to join us at our upcoming meetings to see what we re all about. Meetings are scheduled for May 10 and September 27, 2025. Information will be posted on our Facebook page and on our website.

We are also looking forward to Maine Poets Society s 90th anniversary celebration in 2026.

 
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