2020 Poetry Contest

ABOUT : We were discussing quarantine & feelings of ineptitude in face of crisis with each other, and our desires to directly/meaningfully engage the community tumbled through. Inspired by the charity-donation model at Concis, we've created the contest below.
JUDGES : For our 2020 Poetry Contest, we are stoked to have our 2018 Chapbook Contest Winners Laura Villareal, Stephen Furlong, & Lyd Havens joining us as our official guest judges!!

Each judge will be selecting a winning poem for this contest!! Please see below for more info(!):
Lyd Havens is the author of the chapbook I Gave Birth to All the Ghosts Here (Nostrovia! Press, 2018). The winner of the 2018 ellipsis… Poetry Prize, their work has been published in Ploughshares, The Shallow Ends, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. Lyd is currently an undergraduate at Boise State University, where they are studying creative writing and history. They were born on their due date, and have been intensely punctual to everything since. 

What Lyd is looking for:
"Regarding what I'm looking for: I'd be very interested to see work that provides vivid and unexpected metaphors/imagery, but above all, I would love to see honest work. That can be a pretty open-ended word when it comes to poetry, but define it however you want! I want to see honesty that will comfort me, and honesty that will startle me."
Stephen Furlong is a poet living outside Kansas City, Missouri. He currently is an adjunct instructor at Metropolitan Community College - Longview. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming from places like Bone & Ink, Louisiana Literature, and Pine Hills Review, among others. Additionally, he currently serves as a staff reviewer for the journal Five:2:One and works specifically for the subset LitStyle.

What Stephen is looking for:
"As far as a little snippet of things I'm looking for in reading poems, I'm finding my reading speed has slowed a bit because I'm making the conscious effort to savor the process a bit more. I'm also thinking about an interview that Kaveh Akbar did with Nightjar Review a number of years ago. In brief, he talks about how a poem is a portal to another individual which brings forth the great magical gift of empathy that poetry fosters in the readers. That resonated with me then, and it still does. I also want you to know I'm proud of you for sending out poems and doing the work that is being a poet."
​Laura Villareal is from a tiny town in Texas with more cows than people. She earned her MFA from Rutgers University-Newark and is the author of The Cartography of Sleep (Nostrovia! Press 2018).  Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Waxwing, Redivider, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She works on an interview series for F(r)iction called "Writers Talking about Anything But Writing." She is a 2019-2020 National Book Critics Circle Emerging Fellow and a 2020-2021 Stadler Fellow.

What Laura is looking for:
"I think I'm looking for the element of delight. It appears when I least expect to find it in a line break, phrase, or the story of the poem. I recently stumbled upon Vasko Popa's little box poems & admire the delightful strangeness of them.  I'm open to being wrong, as I often am, about what I'm looking for though. Who knows, what you send might be just what I want/need to read."
WHAT WE OFFER : 
  • at least 3 poems will be picked as winners by our judges, with featured publication and promotion!
  • each winning poet will have their choice between 1) a $50 payment, or 2) choosing a COVID-19 relief charity of their choice (either in their community or we can share a small list of reputable choices), which N!P will match for a total donation of $100!
    • much love to Concīs and their charity-donation model as an inspiration 
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES :
Just like our Chapbook Contests, the submission window opens for a three-day period. Submission dates are not announced in advance. 

All entries should be accompanied by a 2-4 sentence bio and any relevant links in the body of the email. Please attach your contest entry as a pdf/doc/docx file to the email. Additionally: 
  • Entries must be ~3 pages max, with up to 3 poems
    •  IE--you could submit a single 3-page poem, OR three 1-page poems, OR a 2-pager and a 1-pager, etc
  • ​Please start each poem on a new page
  • No previously published work
  • All styles are welcome—traditional, experimental, hybrid, etc.
  • Simultaneous submissions are fine, just please let us know in the email
  • Please include your pronouns in your bio/submission so we can properly refer to you <3​
  • & one entry per person, please
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​Submissions are ONLY ACCEPTED on the designated flash days!
Any poems received after the selected dates will not be considered. We read every submission, and will have our picks for finalists within one month!
Follow our facebook + twitter + instagram to further tighten & grow the N!P community. Go to our profile & set our posts to "see first." Then our posts (& contest's opening) will be prioritized for your engagement during one of the 2,617 touches smart phones average daily.
PLEASE SEND SUBMISSIONS TO :
[ closed to submissions ]