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Poetry Contest Categories & Rules:

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Contest Rules, Submission Guidelines & details listed below ↓

Annual Poetry Contest is closed - and the winners have been selected

Chicago

Judge: Mario Smith

1st place: N.A. Gorman, “Lake Michigan”

2nd place: Kathryn P. Haydon, “Boxing Names”

3rd place: E.J. Wade, “This Place”

1st Honorable Mention: Cassandra McGovern, “Saturday Mornings at the Avalon Theater”

2nd Honorable Mention: Wilda Morris, “At the Art Institute”

3rd Honorable Mention: Mike O'Leary, “Rooted: A Goodbye Letter to Chicago”

Ekphrastic

Judge: Judith Rycroft

1st place: Maureen Tolman Flannery, “Vagabond”

2nd place: Barbara Blanks, “Wings of Grief”

3rd place: Carissa Coane, “Annunciation”

1st Honorable Mention: Wilda Morris, “Painting Shoes”

2nd Honorable Mention: Stephanie DuPont, “Camera Strings”

3rd Honorable Mention: Cynthia Gallaher, “After Franz Marc’s ‘The Bewitched Mill’ 1913”

Exploring

Judge: Marilyn Wolf

1st place: Martin Altman, “From Here to There”

2nd place: E.J. Wade, “Origin”

3rd place: Maureen Tolman Flannery, “Learning to Know the Heavens”

1st Honorable Mention: Tracy Davidson, “Through the Window”

2nd Honorable Mention: Jerri Hardesty, “The Tourist”

3rd Honorable Mention: Catherine Moran, “All the mysteries of love”

Free Verse

Judge: John Hinton

1st place: Catherine Moran, “Taking Away the Junk”

2nd place: Mike Orlock, “Itty Bitty Blue Budgie”

3rd place: Marianne Peel, “Teach Me to Dance Because Bodies Never Lie”

1st Honorable Mention: Melissa Huff, “Musings on the Body”

2nd Honorable Mention: Karian Markos, “The Sound of One Hand Clapping”

3rd Honorable Mention: Paul Buchheit, “Train Station”

Formal verse

Judge: Carla Hagen

1st place: Marianne Peel, “My Tongue Carbon Dates Your Skin: A Modern Triple Sonnet”

2nd place: Candace Armstrong,” Putin’s Daughter”

3rd place: Barbara Lydecker Crane, “Don’t Tell Dad”

1st Honorable Mention: Nick Sweet, “Aunt Sue—Then/Now”

2nd Honorable Mention: Sarah A. Rae, “Dream with Steak, Watermelon, and Flatbed Truck”

3rd Honorable Mention: Wilda Morris, “Sweet Georgia Brown”

Humorous

Judge: John Milkereit

1st place: Lynn Aprill, “Ghazal to the Potato (ala Reddit)”

2nd place: Caroline Johnson, “Ode to Fat”

3rd place: Catherine Moran, “Balancing out the quirks”

1st Honorable Mention: Jocelyn Ajami, “Eggphrastic”

2nd Honorable Mention: Lynda La Rocca, “This Is Also Just to Say”

3rd Honorable Mention: Gail Denham, “Pay Attention, If You Can”

Miniature

Judge: Barbara Hay

1st place: Melissa Huff, “Learning from Landscape”

2nd place: Karian Markos, “Extinction”

3rd place: Lorraine Jeffrey, “Words”

1st Honorable Mention: Kathryn P. Haydon, “Summer’s Last Stand”

2nd Honorable Mention: Lynn Aprill, “Superstitious”

3rd Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Stanley King, “Burn”

Music

Judge: Joe Cavanaugh

1st place: Amy Fogerson, “Why We Do It”

2nd place: William T. Carey, “In Bed with Yo-Yo”

3rd place: Caroline Johnson, “Nocturne in Eb Major”

1st Honorable Mention: Marianne Peel, “We Were Supposed to Say Goodbye”

2nd Honorable Mention: Maureen Tolman Flannery, “Unique Arrangement”

3rd Honorable Mention: Nancy Cook, “Galway Jammin”

Nature

Judge: Michael Spears

1st place: Kathryn P. Haydon, “Formation”

2nd place: Amy Fogerson, “Leaf”

3rd place: Daniel Moreschi, “Cyclical Odysseys”

1st Honorable Mention: Barbara Blanks, “Antarctic Paradise”

2nd Honorable Mention: Carole Novak, “Winter Sunrise”

3rd Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Stanley King, “Zen of Rain”

Regrets

Judge: Sal Marici 

1st place: Lynn Aprill, “The Assignment”

2nd place: Kathryn P. Haydon, “Teshuvah”

3rd place: Kate Hutchinson, “Child Is Father to the Mom”

1st Honorable Mention: Lorraine Jeffrey, “Next Time”

2nd Honorable Mention: Catherine Moran, “Left in the Silence of the Past”

3rd Honorable Mention: Caroline Johnson, “Solidarity with a Schizophrenic”

Rodents

Judge: Susan Stevens

1st place: Jerri Hardesty, “Sprinklers”

2nd place: Wilda Morris, “After Expressway Construction Destroyed Habitat”

3rd place: Maureen Tolman Flannery, “Circulation”

1st Honorable Mention: Mike Orlock, “The Felled”

2nd Honorable Mention: Monica Cardestam, “haiku: “smug little bastard …”

3rd Honorable Mention: Kate Hutchinson, “Uninvited Guests”

Social Conscience/Social Justice-Still Waiting on Results

Judge: Hana Fadness

1st place: Marianne Peel, "Pomegranates, Avocados, and Figs"

2nd place: Stephanie DuPont, “Daylight Dims”

3rd place: E.J. Wade, “Dismantled”

1st Honorable Mention: Charles Kouri, “i was hers to decide”

2nd Honorable Mention: Lynn Aprill, “Damage”

3rd Honorable Mention: Wilda Morris, “Sisters in Silence”

Contest Categories

Note: All categories are open to all unless otherwise noted.

Regrets
Judge: Sal Marici

Rodents
Judge: Susan Chambers

Music
Judge: Joe Cavanaugh

Exploring
Judge: Marilyn Wolf

Chicago (open only to Poets & Patrons members and those who live within 100 miles of Chicago) Judge: Mario Smith