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“Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,
Hast built thyself a livelong monument.”
—John Milton, “On Shakespeare”
First Prize:
$2,000. Publication on the Society’s website and Journal.
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Submission Fee:
$20 (The fee comes with a free subscription to our monthly e-Newsletter.)
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Submit:
One to three poems on any topic. Altogether, the poems should total 108 lines or less. First click here to pay the submission fee, then email as a Word file or in the email body to [email protected]. Put “Poetry Contest Submission” in the subject line of the email. Poems must contain meter (beginners and students may simply count syllables). Rhyme and other traditional techniques are encouraged as well, but not required. (To learn how to write poetry with meter, see a brief beginner’s guide on common iambic meter here or a more elaborate beginner’s guide to many kinds of meter here. See a guide to poetry forms here.) You may alternatively mail a check made out to the Society of Classical Poets to Evan Mantyk, Society of Classical Poets. Email [email protected] for mailing address.
You may pay up to $60 and send in up to three separate submissions.
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Deadline:
December 31, 2024, 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners announced February 1, 2025 on our e-Newsletter and on the Society’s homepage. (Annual submission dates Sept. 1 – Dec. 31.)
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High School Prize:
$200. See details here.
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Judges:
C.B. Anderson
Susan Jarvis Bryant
Margaret Coats
Evan Mantyk
Reid McGrath
James Sale
Joseph S. Salemi
Adam Sedia
James A. Tweedie
Brian Yapko
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Read about the Competition Judges here.
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Who May Participate?
Anyone from any country of any background. If you are outside the United States, you would need to have a PayPal account to receive the prize money should you win First Place.
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Additional Details
Poems should be written in 2024. They may be previously published. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
Past First Place winners and the Society’s executive staff are prohibited from participating.
You do not have to be a Member of the Society to participate.
You will retain ownership of your submitted poetry. By submitting it to the Society for publication or for inclusion in the contest, should it rank among winners or receive an honorable mention, you give the Society permission to publish it online on this website, in the Society of Classical Poets Journal, and in publications promoting the SCP’s mission or this annual contest, but the SCP would not be able to sell your individual poem on its own or have any further rights over it beyond these purposes. You could publish it anywhere else or sell it to any publication as desired.
You can enter up to three submissions, each containing one to three poems, not exceeding 108 lines in total per submission. Each submission requires the standard entry fee of $20.
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Past Winners
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
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Poetry Writing Resources
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- A Simple Guide to Forms and Examples from the Society of Classical Poets
- “Freeware Prosody” by Expansive Poetry Online
- How to Write Classical Poetry by the Society of Classical Poets
- “The Hard Edges of a Poem” by Joseph S. Salemi
- The Prosody Handbook: A Guide to Poetic Form by Robert Beum and Karl Shapiro
- Writing Metrical Poetry by William Baer
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I don’t understand when you say the poem had to have been written in 2024.
Does that mean If I wrote a poem in 2022 I can’t submit it? How about a poem I’ve submitted to other contests in 2022 or 2023 that have not won, can I resubmit them.? Do I have to be a member to submit my work, and if so how do I become a member? I hope this is the right forum to lodge my questions.
All the best
John Raguz
Dear John Raguz,
If you keep reading the Additional Details above you will see that you don’t have to be a Member to participate. Of course, we encourage everyone to join and support the revival of traditional poetry (with meter and often rhyme), but that is up to you: https://classicalpoets.org/join-the-society/ Without being a Member, you can still read and comment on poems, participate in contests, receive our e-newsletter, and submit poems for consideration. With Membership, you can get feedback from the Editor on your poems, connect with other poets, have an additional qualification, and help support the SCP.
The purpose of the contest is to spur the creation of new and great works of poetry. Therefore, every year we hold it and require that poetry be from that year. That is the spirit and meaning behind this requirement. However, it may be the case that you have been working on a poem, let’s say written in 2022, and you revised it in 2024 and want to submit it. As long as a mostly similar version of the same poem has not been published anywhere else in print or online before 2024, then it qualifies.
Let’s say you are using exactly the same poem from a 2022 contest in a 2024 contest. We are not going to exhaustively investigate the timeline of people’s poems, and you will have to make your own judgment. Officially, we expect these to be new poems and if someone were to challenge your win, should you win, with evidence that it was not written in 2024, then you should probably take that into consideration.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Evan Mantyk
SCP Editor
Dear Evan Mantyk –
Thank you for the articulate explanations. They are very helpful, but I have need of an additional clarification: I have three poems written before 2024 which I would like to submit, but final editing and rewrites were not completed until this past month. The edits/rewrites have changed parts of the poems enough to make them quite different than the original forms. Are these poems eligible for submission, or not? I appreciate your ruling about this as I do want to comply with the rules. Thank you.
I am trying to mail you a check, but you don’t list your snail mail address as far as I can find: please email it to me at [email protected]
So you’re telling me if I wrote a poem in 2022 and I’ve never entered it, or even so if I have entered it and not won I have to use my better judgement. I think you should have better clarification as to why it has to have been written in 2024. You should make this rule more precise. I’m not satisfied with your response, it just leaves more doubt.
So you’re telling me if I wrote a poem in 2022 and I’ve never entered it, or even so if I have entered it and not won I have to use my better judgement. I think you should have better clarification as to why it has to have been written in 2024. You should make this rule more precise. I’m not satisfied with your response, it just leaves more doubt.
I am confused by the submission form. There is a blank field where we are to submit payment. I tried to pay, and got a message to put “the requested info” into that field. So I pasted in my cover letter. That was too long, as it is limited to 127 characters. Please let me know what is needed in that field.
Thank you, Tony Greiner. That space should just be left blank unless you have any comment to make. The poem or poems should be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line “Poetry Competition Submission”
-Evan Mantyk, Editor
Hello, I am new here. I’ve been writing poetry recently as a means to honestly process some deep suffering but in the context of greater and redemptive truth. I’ve been enjoying the poetry I find here and I’d like to submit some of my own, but don’t see here details for where to pay and how to submit. Can you help me? Thank you.
Hi Lisa. Just follow the submission guidelines. Basically, you send your submission(s) to: [email protected] and Evan gets back to you.
Submission is free.
[Editor’s Note: there is a $20 submission fee for the contest (details are above); if you are looking for Membership and feedback, see here: https://classicalpoets.org/join-the-society/%5D
Hi Guys @ SCP –
I’ve been endeavoring to get around the logistics of making the initial $20 USD payment to enter a piece of mine in the SCP International Poetry Competition for 2024.
I planned on paying via my Australian Debit Card (Master Card ?) but didn’t seem to get past first base.
I fancy the transaction did not go ahead. On activating the payment prompt the fields to fill in for debit card details and phone contact ‘bounced back’
empty again. The phone details I understand, as I have no mobile phone
and filled in details for what we call here in Oz a ‘landline’ (which I believe
can be for overseas call purposes).
I imagine you’ll advise that, for convenience sake, I need to set up a PayPal account to be sure of receipt of my $20 entry fee at your end.
I guess I can use a fiend or family member’s mobile number (with their say-so) to have your payment pro-forma accept my payment.
Meanwhile I’m trusting that none of my bankcard details have been compromised in my abortive attempt to get a payment to you.
I look forward to eventually getting my payment to you at SCP before the
close of December deadline
An Aussie ‘Cheerio’ from John Sheills
Dear John Sheills,
No payment information is ever retained. The best way to go is to get PayPal or find someone with PayPal, or if you know someone in America (or maybe another country) who can pay for you then that also works.
-Evan Mantyk
SCP Editor
Does the $20 entry fee include feedback on the poems I entered, or do I need to pay an additional $20 for SCP membership if I want feedback? Thanks!
Dear Laura,
That’s right. If you want feedback on your poetry then you should obtain SCP Membership: https://classicalpoets.org/join-the-society/
Membership is separate from entering the competition.
-Evan Mantyk
SCP Editor
Is the judging done blind? (And does being a member increase the chances of winning?) Thanks!
Laura, judging is not blind. Poets sometimes submit poems that were published by the SCP’s online journal or other publications in 2024. Therefore, it is impossible to make it blind judging unless we limit the poems to unpublished works (which we do not want to do). No, SCP Membership does not increase chances of winning. We want the greatest, new English poetry—period.