The 2017 SFPA Poetry Contest opens June 1. Winners will be announced by October 1. Mary McMyne is our 2017 Contest Chair. Questions about the contest can be sent to 17contest@sfpoetry.com. This year’s judge is Nikia Chaney. The deadline is August 31.

Contest Rules: The 2017 SFPA speculative poetry contest is open to all poets, including non-SFPA-members. Prizes will be awarded for best 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 will be read blind.

Judge: Nikia Chaney
Nikia Chaney is the current Inlandia Literary Laureate (2016-2018). She is author of two chapbooks, Sis Fuss (Orange Monkey Publishing, 2012) and ladies, please (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her manuscript bite down, hum was the winner of the Marsh Hawk Robert Creeley Award in 2015. She is founding editor of shufpoetry, an online journal for experimental poetry, and founding editor of Jamii Publishing, a publishing imprint dedicated to fostering community among poets and writers. She has won grants and fellowships from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women, Poets & Writers, Squaw Valley and Cave Canem. She teaches at San Bernardino Valley College and Chaffey College.

Contest Chair: Mary McMyne
Mary McMyne is the author of Wolf Skin (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), winner of the Elgin Chapbook Award. Her speculative poetry has appeared widely in venues like Ninth Letter, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pedestal, Phantom Drift, and Chattahoochee Review. She has been the recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award, an artist's grant from Vermont Studio Center, and the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize for a Novel-in-Progress. She teaches writing and co-edits Border Crossing at Lake Superior State University. She edits poetry for Faerie Magazine.

Submission guidelines:

• Online entry form: http://bit.ly/2017SPFA
• Deadline is August 31.
• 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 17contest@sfpoetry.com and pay treasurer directly via PayPal at sfpatreasurer@gmail.com.
• Unpublished poems only.
• Enter as many poems as you like, but an entry fee $2 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 17contest@sfpoetry.com, “SFPA contest” in subject line, .rtf preferred, and send a check payable to SFPA to SFPA Treasurer, PO Box 2472, Dublin CA 94568, USA.

Confirmation of receipt of your submission should follow within 3 days.
Announcement of winners will be posted on the SFPA website.

Prizes: In each category (Dwarf, Short, Long): $100 First Prize, $50 Second Prize, $25 Third Prize. Publication on Poetry Planet (StarShipSofa.com) podcast magazine and on the SFPA website for first through third places.