From the Split This Rock web site:
Split This Rock is pleased to announce our second annual poetry contest, to be judged by poet and National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith. First place $500; 2nd and 3rd place, $250 each. Winning poems will be published on www.SplitThisRock.org, and the 1st-place winner will be invited to read winning poem at Split This Rock Poetry Festival, 2010.
Deadline is March 9, 2009 (postmark)
Reading Fee: $25, which supports Split This Rock Poetry Festival
Submissions should be in the spirit of Split This Rock: socially engaged poems, poems that reach beyond the self to connect with the larger community or world; poems of provocation and witness. This theme can be interpreted broadly and may include but is not limited to work addressing politics, government, war, leadership; issues of identity (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, body image, immigration, cultural heritage, etc.); community, civic engagement, education, activism; and poems about history, Americana, cultural icons. Read the winning poems from 2008 here.
Send up to 3 unpublished poems, no more than 6 pages total, in any style, in the spirit of Split This Rock (see above). Enclose a check or money order for $25 (made out to "Split This Rock") to Split This Rock Poetry Contest, c/o Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036.
Simultaneous submissions OK, but please notify us immediately if the poem is accepted elsewhere.
Judge Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry. She is a National Book Award Finalist, Pushcart Prize winner, Cave Canem faculty member, and four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition's history.
FMI: info@splitthisrock.org.
