SFPA Poetry Contest |
The 2022 SFPA Speculative Poetry Contest opens for entries on June 1. Deadline August 31.
Contest Rules: The SFPA speculative poetry contest is open to all poets, including non-SFPA-members. Prizes will be awarded for best unpublished poem in 3 categories: Dwarf (poems 1–10 lines [prose poems 0–100 words]); Short (11–49 lines [prose poems 101–499 words]); Long (50 lines and more [prose 500 words and up]). Line count does not include title or stanza breaks. All sub-genres of speculative poetry allowed in any form. Entries are read blind; friends/family/students of the judge may not enter. 2021 winners are posted here.
Prizes: In each category (Dwarf, Short, Long): $150 First Prize, $75 Second Prize, $25 Third Prize. Publication on the SFPA website for first through third places.
2022 Judge: David Kirby
David Kirby teaches at Florida State University. His collection The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems was a finalist for both the National Book Award and Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize. He is the author of Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, which the Times Literary Supplement of London called “a hymn of praise to the emancipatory power of nonsense” and was named one of Booklist’s Top 10 Black History Non-Fiction Books of 2010. His latest books are a poetry collection, Help Me, Information, and a textbook modestly entitled The Knowledge: Where Poems Come From and How to Write Them.
2022 Contest Chair: Brittany Hause
Brittany Hause’s speculative poetry has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Kaleidotrope, and many other places, and their Spanish-to-English verse translations can be read in Better Than Starbucks, Star*Line, and elsewhere. They're not from the UK, but that's where they currently live.
Submission guidelines:
- The 2022 contest is open as of June 1
- Deadline is August 31
- Online entry form: https://bit.ly/SFPAContest2022
- Entries will be read blind. Please do not include any identifying information on the file or filename; enter your name only in the form. The name of the file should be the name of the poem. .rtf preferred. Either submit poems individually via form, or send all in one file, separated by ***, with “SFPA Contest” in the subject line, to 22contest@sfpoetry.com & pay treasurer via PayPal at sfpatreasurer@gmail.com.
- Unpublished poems only. Author retains rights, except that first through third place winners will be published on our website.
- Enter as many poems as you like, but an entry fee of $3 per poem must be paid via PayPal at entry (credit card can be used without a PayPal account). Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but must be immediately withdrawn if accepted elsewhere.
- No PayPal, or problems with form? Send poems via e-mail to 22contest@sfpoetry.com
Put “SFPA contest” in subject line, .rtf preferred, and send a check payable to SFPA toSFPA
PO Box 1563
Alameda CA 94501
Confirmation of receipt of your submission
should follow within 3 days.
Announcement of winners will be posted on the SFPA website.
Previous SFPA Contests
2010 New Poets Contest: Ekphrasis 2008 Poetry Contest: Energy 2007 Poetry Contest: Sonnets |
SFPA has published anthologies of past selected contest poems.![]() ![]() |