James H. Nash Poetry Contest

Congratulations to our 2024 Winners!

FIRST PLACE
Allison Cundiff
Hop In

FINALISTS
Mark W. Kumming
Breakfast

Jessica Freeman
Cuivre River

Congratulations to our 2024 Semi-Finalists!

Ameen Animashaun
Ordinary Eyes
There Is No Point

Zain Baweja
Karachi: A Glossary

Maggie Bell
Long COVID

Allison Cundiff
Burying Jory

Renee Emerson
Meditation on Death at the Great Wolf Lodge Indoor Water Park
Wishing My Dead Dad Could Help Me Buy a Car

Jessica Freeman
St. Mary’s

Irene Hasse
Became / Become / Becoming

Aiden Heung
In St. Louis I Try To Name All the Trees in English

M. E. Hope
The History of Silence
What We Will Find

Peggy Hapke Lewis
Catching the Shadow Son

Corinne Wohlford Mason
In Defense of the Acolyte at Kinkaku-Ji

Claire Peterson
Dear Jo’s Letter

Ned Randle
Off Fall

Jo Ann Schaper
Great Blue Heron at Alley Spring
The Feather

Jessica D. Thompson
Oasis

A. J. Ward
The Water Repeats Itself

Ariana Yeatts-Lonske
Insomnia Sketch #7

SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED

First Prize: $500
2 finalists

First place winner will receive a newsletter feature. First place and finalists will all receive a website feature.

2024 Contest Judge:

Hayan Charara

Hayan Charara is the author of four poetry books, most recently These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit (Milkweed Editions, 2022), a Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award finalist, and the award-winning children’s book, The Three Lucys (Lee & Low, 2016). He is the co-founder and series editor of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize and teaches at the University of Houston. He divides his time between Texas and California.

Submissions Open:
February 1 – March 15

Entry Fee: $10
(free for SLPC members)

GUIDELINES:

Open to all current SLPC members, and to current residents or students in the St. Louis metro area living within a 100-mile radius of St. Louis City
Saint Louis Poetry Center board members are not eligible to enter the contest
Submit up to 2 typed poems per entry, any form and length
No manuscripts will be returned
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but previously published or award-winning poems are not eligible (including those that have appeared on social media, websites, blogs, etc)
Additional poems will be accepted with additional entry fees
Entry fee is $10, make checks payable to Saint Louis Poetry Center (NOTE: entry fee waived for current SLPC members, free entry with new/renewed membership)
Enclose a cover sheet that includes: name, address, phone number, email address and the titles of the poems submitted
Name and address on cover sheet only, no identifying information on poems
Contest results will be announced in late April (NOTE: to be notified by mail, include self-addressed stamped envelope with mailed entry)

First place and finalists are invited to read their poems at Saint Louis Poetry Center’s annual Poetry Concert.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Submit Online – SLPC Member

Submit Online – Non-Member

Email* entries to:
[email protected]

*If submitting entries by email, attach cover sheet & poems as separate Word or PDF documents. Include a copy of your entry fee receipt or new/renewed membership receipt with your poems (if applicable).

Mail entries with entry fee and SASE to:
Saint Louis Poetry Center
Nash Poetry Contest
3301 Washington Ave. # 2D
St. Louis, MO 63103