James H. Nash Poetry Contest
Congratulations to our 2023 Winners!
FIRST PLACE
Ren Wilding
Electrons on the Red Line to Bellerive
FINALISTS
Renee Emerson
Delivering a Dead Baby at Mercy Hospital
Steven D. Schroeder
Stop me if you’ve heard this before
Congratulations to our 2023 Semi-Finalists!
Walter Bargen
Socratic Ukraine
Maggie Bell
Keeping Score
Keith Byler
Molly
Allison Creighton
Confessional
Interstates
Dawn Dupler
Pantoum for My Mother’s Palette
Kristin Emanuel
Nostalgic for the Ghosts We’ve Become
Renee Emerson
Every Now and Then the Yard Caught Fire
Spencer E. Hurst
Burning Man
Oracle
Emily Koehn
Mother Who Wears Her Heart in Her Eyes as Used Bullets
Teddy Norris
Paean to the Dandelion
Catherine Rankovic
Snow Globe
Tim Rowden
Blue-red the flashing lights
Fragile
Jo Schaper
The Feather
Steven D. Schroeder
An open letter about our happiness
I’d Like to Find My Final Line
Paul Stroble
Holy Fools
Meramec Caverns
Jessica D. Thompson
Pomegranate
Ren Wilding
Crocus
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.

2023 Contest Judge:
Hadara Bar-Nadav
Photo credit: Sharon Gottula
Hadara Bar-Nadav
Hadara Bar-Nadav is an NEA fellow and author of several award-winning books of poetry, among them The Singing Pills (forthcoming), The New Nudity, Lullaby (with Exit Sign), The Frame Called Ruin, and A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight, as well as the chapbooks Fountain and Furnace and Show Me Yours. She is also co-author with Michelle Boisseau of the best-selling textbook Writing Poems, 8th ed. Hadara is a Professor of English and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
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:
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
ONLINE, EMAIL & POSTMARK DEADLINE: March 15, 2023
Congratulations to our 2022 Winners!
FIRST PLACE
Jason Sommer
A Dream of My Father and of Me
FINALISTS
Rachel Linn
Love Letter
Spencer E. Hurst
The Last Day
Congratulations to our 2021 Winners!
FIRST PLACE
William Youngblood
Father, What is the Distance Between Further and Farther?
FINALISTS
Britny Cordera
Good Feet
Matthew Freeman
Dad and I at the Bus Stop When it’s Six Degrees
Congratulations to our 2020 Winners!
FIRST PLACE
Jacqui Germain
After a Nightmare
HONORABLE MENTIONS
William Youngblood
Portrait of a Man, Probably
Keith Byler
The Mortician
Congratulations to our 2019 Winners!
FIRST PLACE
Keith Byler
Five O’clock News
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Lizzy Petersen
“Elizabeth Mayfield, ca. 1940”
Steven D. Schroeder
Endnotes