Poetry Society of Virginia Annual Contests

The Poetry Society of Virginia hosts three contests each year: An annual competition with varied categories for adults and students each as well as an annual Book Award.

Student contests are free of charge. Adult contest submissions are free to PSoV members and $5 per submission for non-members. Check this space for upcoming information about the next season.

The submission period for the 2020 Book Award will open from October 15th 2019 to January 15th 2020. Click here to read the rules.

Winners for the Poetry Society of Virginia Annual Adult & Student Contests for 2019 as well as the 2019 Book Award have been announced.

2019 Poetry Society of Virginia Annual Adult Contest Winners

2019 Poetry Society of Virginia Annual Student Contest Winners

2019 Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award Winner

Contest Rules

 

Click here to view the Adult Contest Rules.

Click here to view the Student Contest rules.

Click here to view the Book Award Rules.

 

 

Edgar Allen Poe Contest
First Place: Women Who Swim / Davi Walders
Honorable Mention: Night Watch / Pia Borsheim
Honorable Mention: The Chemistry of Things / Ken Sutton



Sarah Lockwood Memorial Contest
First Place: The Blind and Star-Nosed Mole / Erin Newton Wells
Second Place: Where is Ophelia's Mother? Sonnet / Lisa St. John
Third Place: A Discouragement / Samuel Earl Simpson



Bess Gresham Contest
First Place: Purloined Princes / Adele Gardner
Second Place: LETTERS WITH BARBARA / KATHARYN HOWD MACHAN
Third Place: Considering Turtles After a Friend Turns 100 / Wendy DeGroat



Carleton Drewry Contest
Judge: James Owens
First Place: Attic Letters: Myrtle to Ed, October 3, 1952 / Amelia L. Williams
Second Place: Your Peach and Mine / Tony Gentry
Third Place: The Rune of Return / Heidi Lynn Nilsson



Brodie Herndon Contest
Judge: Patricia Corbus
First Place: BIG SISTER Bill Ayres
Second Place: To Walk Through a Door / Erin Newton Wells
Third Place: Facing the Day / Bill Glose
Honorable Mention: Witnesses Elizabeth Spencer Spragins



Nancy Byrd Contest
First Place: Damariscotta River Oysters / Eric Fosbergh
Second Place: Salem's Indifferent Ox / Amanda Creasey
Third Place: Sonnet for an Arabian Autumn / Diane Gwen Woodcock



Judah, Sarah, Grace Contest
First Place: Amid the Dancing Glee / Bill Glose
Second Place: the first time i kissed a white boy / Mai Ngoc Xuan Hoang
Third Place: I REMEMBER MY MISTAKES / Bill Ayres



Cenie Moon Contest
First Place: when I needed to understand darkness / Amelia L. Williams
Second Place: GEOMETRIC / JERRI HARDESTY
Third Place: My Mother Loved To Burn Leaves / Nancy Allen



Handy Andy Prize Contest
First Place: Erato / FLORENCE MARTIN
Second Place: A JESTER... / MERLE BURGESS
Third Place: Do Not Forget List / Erin Newton Wells

Ada Sanderson Contest
First Place: spiders don’t say / Amelia L. Williams
Second Place: SHARK TOOTH / DL PEARLMAN
Third Place: SEVEN DEER / BILL GLOSE



Charlotte Wise Contest
First Place: How About the Year I Turned 18 / Bill Prindle
Second Place: How Uncle Ray's Little House was Left Standing Green / Joyce Compton Brown
Third Place: Fire Raging, Questions Blazing / Diane Gwen Woodcock



Robert Sargent Contest
First Place: Bird Market / Nancy Allen
Second Place: Swallow / Serena Fusek
Third Place: Mothers' Day, 2016 / Joanna Lee



Elizabeth Neuwirth Contest
First Place: Off to Sea / Erin Newton Wells
Second Place: The Storyteller's Father / Stan Galloway
Third Place: SARGENT'S CARNATION, LILY, LILY, ROSE / ERIC FORSBERGH



Laura Day Boggs Contest
First Place: WILD QUIET / DEREK KANNEMEYER
Second Place: NIGHT IN OUR HOUSE DRAGONS FLY / KATHARYN HOWD MACHAN
Third Place: IMAGINATION / JUDY WHITEHILL WITT



Miriam Rachimi Contest
First Place: Rune of Gestation, Rune of Birch / Heidi Lynn Nilsson
Second Place: Unseen Hand / Jacqueline Jules
Third Place: BURYING MORGAN / BILL GLOSE



Joe Pendleton Contest
First Place: Before the Aurora's Return / Jamie Elliott Keith
Second Place: revenant / BILL GLOSE
Third Place: IMMIGRANT REFLECTION / TONY GENTRY



Raymond Levi Haislip Contest
First Place: How the Rennaisance Was Made of Paper / Erin Newton Wells
Second Place: A SHEEP, A DUCK... / DEREK KANNEMEYER
Third Place: A NEAT TRICK IF YOU CAN / ERIC FORSBERGH



A Sense of Place: Contest
First Place: Southern Ground / Nancy Allen
Second Place: A Topographical Map of Time / Marian S Pearce
Third Place: MASSACHUSETTS COLONIAL FARMHOUSE AUCTION / ERIC FORSBERGH
Honorable Mention: LIFELINE / CYNTHIA FREZEK
Honorable Mention: WINDLESS BAY / DL PEARLMAN



New Voices Contest
First Place: NAMESAKE / JULIA CAMPBELL JOHNSTON
Second Place: HANDSHAKE / VERNON WILDY JR.
Third Place: MIND TRICKS / ROBERT GLUCK
Honorable Mention: The Devil’s Garden (A Cywydd Llosgyrnog) / Elizabeth Spencer Spragins



Honoring Fatherhood Contest
First Place: TURNING INTO IT / BILL GLOSE
Second Place: Ao Dai / Nancy Allen
Third Place: The Importance of Small Things / Erin Newton Wells
Honorable Mention: Mykola / Nicole Yurcaba
Honorable Mention: her old man / Jeff Hewitt



Ekphrastic Contest
First Place: Marie Antoinette's First Mechanical Desk / Jamie Elliott Keith
Second Place: Southern Justice / Erin Newton Wells
Third Place: After Brugel’s Painting “The Parable of the Blind” / Kindra McDonald



The Anne Spencer Contest
First Place: RESIDUAL IMPEDIMENTS / KEN SUTTON
Second Place: VOLITION / TERRY COX-JOSEPH
Third Place: JUNKING / BILL GLOSE



Narrative Contest
First Place: When All the Air is Made of Fire / Erin Newton Wells
Second Place: POWER OUTAGE / ERIC FORSBERGH
Third Place: After Writing, After Frost / Sally Zakariya
Honorable Mention: TIMELESS MOMENT / FLORENCE MARTIN
Honorable Mention: AT LEEDS / DEREK KANNEMEYER
Honorable Mention: Brambleberry Days / Becky Dale Alexander



Don Frew Contest
First Place: GOALS OF GLASS / DL PEARLMAN
Second Place: My Peculiar Neighbor / Nancy Allen
Third Place: Risibility / Adele Gardner



Emma Gray Trigg Contest
First Place: Frail Illegal Fire Ballons / Erin Newton Wells
Second Place: WHEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE WAREHOUSE / DL PEARLMAN
Third Place: Burning Nancy Allen
Honorable Mention: Hippocampus (Bent Horse) / Diane Gwen Woodcock
Honorable Mention: JULIE DOESN'T SING HERE ANYMORE / ESTHER WHITMAN JOHNSON



Karma Deane Ogden Contest
First Place: After a Lesson about Oysters / Wendy DeGroat
Second Place: MARINE FISHERMAN'S TALK / ERIC FORSBERGH
Third Place: The Auction Block (A Rannaigheacht Ghairid) / Elizabeth Spencer Spragins



Loretta Dunn Hall Contest
First Place: Illumination, c. 1911 / Wendy DeGroat
Second Place: IMPOSSIBLE BOTTLE / PATRICIA CASEY
Third Place: THE LOT OF YOU / RUTH HOLZER



Undergraduate Contest
First Place: Your Lovely Clementine / Julia Pratt
Second Place: Void Music / Paul Andre Castonguay
Third Place: Sunday Prayers / Makeda Jackson