Submissions for the WCPA’s 2023 Poetry Contest, The Frank O’Hara Prize open on January 1st, 2023.

Please read the Contest Guidelines below before submitting to the contest. Submissions will be accepted through Friday March 31st, 2023.

2023 CONTEST JUDGE:

Karen Skolfield is our 2023 Contest Judge.

Karen Skolfield’s book Battle Dress (W. W. Norton) won the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award in poetry and the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry and was a “Must Read” selection from the Massachusetts Center for the Book. She is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review and has won additional awards and fellowships from the Poetry Society of America, New England Public Radio, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, Hedgebrook, and elsewhere. She loves volunteering in the public schools and bringing a little poetry into the classroom, but she can’t decide if she prefers kindergarteners (so sweet!) or teenagers (hard to win over, but the winning is glorious). Skolfield is a U.S. Army veteran and teaches writing to engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her MFA; she served as poet laureate for Northampton, MA for 2019-2022. www.karenskolfield.com

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

To enter the WCPA’s annual poetry contest, you must be either…

A resident of Worcester County, or
A student or employee of institutions within Worcester County or
A WCPA member in good standing

First Place winners of previous WCPA annual poetry contests are not eligible to enter.

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

Email submissions will not be accepted. The only way to submit electronically is by visiting our Submittable page. There is an additional fee to submit electronically, even if you are a member of the WCPA.
Poems must be the entrant’s original work in English and must not be previously published.
Submit no more than THREE (3) poems in any form.
Paper submissions must not be stapled or attached in any way.
Poems must be formatted for 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper.
Do not put your name on the individual poems.
Include a cover sheet with your name, address, telephone number, and the title of each poem.
Paper submissions can be mailed to WCPA Poetry Contest, PO Box 804, Worcester, MA 01613.
Submissions will not be returned.
Winners will be listed on the WCPA website and announced via our Facebook page. We will no longer mail out a list of winners, so please don’t send us a stamped envelope.

ENTRY FEE:

There is no entry fee for WCPA members.
Non-WCPA members: $5.00. Make check or money order payable to Worcester County Poetry Association.
Contest fees are waived if you join the WCPA or renew your membership with your entry. You can include a check with your submission or join/renew via our online store.

JUDGING & AWARDS:

First Place: $100 – Second Place: $50 – Third Place: $25
Winning poems will be published in The Worcester Review, after which all rights revert to the poet.
Contest winners will be announced in June 2023.
Winners’ Reading & Award Reception to be held in September 2023.
The WCPA Annual Poetry Contest does not pre-select poems: the contest judge sees all entries.