James H. Nash Poetry Contest

Congratulations to our 2023 Winners!

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!

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