Submission Guidelines

All forms accepted, 40 lines max per poem. No previously published poems, or poems that have won other prizes.  Winner receives $1000, publication in String Poet, and composition of original music by professional composer inspired by the winning poem, to be performed at the Awards Ceremony in Spring 2017. Winner and Runners-up published in forthcoming 2017 issue of String Poet, and invited to read at the Awards Ceremony. All contest submissions are considered for publication in journal. There is no theme for submissions — String Poet does not solicit poems solely on the subject of music. Reading the journal archives is a great way to become familiar with the type of work that String Poet publishes.

Entry Fee: $15.00 — include up to 5 poems, up to 40 lines per poem

Submissions Now Closed

Final Judge: X.J. Kennedy

Composer: Richard Brooks

Last Year’s Winner

Last year’s String Poet Prize was awarded to John Beaton for his poem, “Midwinter Music,” which was set to music by composer Joelle Wallach. Look for the poem and composition to be unveiled at the Award Ceremony in September.

Online Submissions

Submissions should be made, along with the entry fee, by 11:59 PM PDT on July 29, 2016.
Payment: Please do not use the “Donate” button to send payment for a contest entry. Instead, use the shopping cart on this page to send payment by credit card or PayPal. If your PayPal email address does not match the email used to send your poems, please make note of that in your contest submission email.
Submissions: After completing payment, send a single e-mail with your poem(s) to contest@stringpoet.com. Be sure to include submissions in-line within the email body. If you wish to also include an attachment, the following formats are acceptable: PDF (.pdf), Rich Text (.rtf), Word (.doc), or plain text (.txt). Do not attach .docx files. Include your name and contact information in the body of the email, or as a separate cover page within the attachment — do not put identifying information on the same page as a poetry submission.

Postal Submissions

Send your poem(s) and payment, postmarked on or before July 29th, 2016 to:
String Poet Prize c/o Long Island Violin Shop
8 Elm Street
Huntington, NY 11743

Checks payable to “String Poet” drawn from a U.S. Bank.   Author’s name and contact information typed on the BACK of each submitted page — do not put identifying information on the front page of a poetry submission. Include a SASE or your email address if you would like to be notified of contest results, or subscribe to String Poet. Hardcopy entries cannot be returned, and will be recycled.