Women’s Poetry Contest Guidelines

Women poets may submit their work. We are now open for submissions!

Note: We had a typo in our submissions email on this website. Please make sure your submission was sent to the now-corrected address.

 

CONTEST DATES

Entry: December 1, 2024 – February 15, 2025

First-round reading period: February 15–Feb 28

Finalist reading period for the judge: March 1–15

Winners announced: March 15, 2025

 

PRIZES

First Place

  • $500
  • Feature in virtual reading
  • Featured poet publication in The Orchards Poetry Journal Summer 2025
  • Free print contributor copy of the Summer 2025 issue
  • No reading fee for one future manuscript submission to Kelsay Books

Second Place

  • $100
  • Publication in The Orchards Poetry Journal Summer 2025
  • Free print contributor copy of the Summer 2025 issue
  • No reading fee for one future manuscript submission to Kelsay Books.

Two Honorable Mentions

  • Publication in The Orchards Poetry Journal Summer 2025
  • Free print contributor copy of the Summer 2025 issue
  • No reading fee for one future manuscript submission to Kelsay Books

 

ENTRY FEE

$15 for three poems

Submit fee here

(Enter as many times as you wish)

  

JUDGE

Gail White, born and educated in Florida, lived 17 years in New Orleans before moving to Louisiana Bayou country, convinced there was no good food outside Louisiana.  She is a two-time winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award and a contributing editor to Light Poetry Magazine. Her work has appeared in two Pocket Poets anthologies, five Potcake Chapbooks, the Nasty Women Poets anthology, Purr and Yowl (a cat poems anthology), and many others. Her solo collections include Paper Cuts and Catechism (Kelsay Books), Asperity Street (Able Muse Press), Easy Marks (David Robert Books), and The Accidental Cynic, a winner of the Anita Dorn Memorial Award.  She married Arthur White, history teacher and artist, who has brightened her life for 57 years.
 

 

WHAT TO ENTER

  • Poetry: Any form, up to 30 lines in length
  • File Type: Word documents (no PDFs, please)
  • Simultaneous Submissions: Not accepted
  • Previously Published: Previously published poems are accepted as long as the author retains rights
  • Judging Method: We are judging with names redacted so please remove your name from your poetry document
  • Note: No revisions after submission. 

 

HOW TO ENTER

  1. First, pay the entry fee.  For 1–3 poems, the cost is $15.00. Multiple entries are allowed.
  2. Include your PayPal transaction ID inside the body of your email. The transaction ID is emailed to you once the PayPal payment has been accepted.
  3. Write CONTEST in the subject line of your email.
  4. The body of the email should contain the titles of your poems and your name, address, and 50-word biography.
  5. Submit 1–3 poems in ONE Word document attached to the email. If you send multiple entries, you must pay new submission fee and submit a new Word document for each group of poems. Send a new email for each batch of submissions.
  6. Do NOT put your name in the Word document containing your poems. We are judging with names redacted.
  7. Send the email to: womenscontestsub@gmail.com (with an 's' after 'women'). Submissions sent to any other email will not be accepted.

 

This contest is for women poets.