James H. Nash Poetry Contest

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN

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

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:

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, 2024

Congratulations to our 2023 Winners!

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!

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