FIRST ANNUAL

​TENNESSEE COLLEGIATE

POETRY CONTEST



CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

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​Tennessee

Collegiate

Poetry

Contest

The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) welcomes all college students in Tennessee to submit one poem for their First Annual Tennessee Collegiate Poetry Contest. All themes, forms, and styles of poetry are welcome! 

From the urban to the rural, Tennessee is a deceptively large state, filled with diverse landscapes—all compact with unique charm. How has living in Tennessee, specifically, impacted your life? Whether you're a transplant or a life-long resident—we want to see work that gives a glimpse into a perspective cultivated from living in our beautiful state. All themes, forms, and styles of poetry are welcome! We will pick the top 3 poems that showcase the best our state has to offer.
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PRIZES AND PUBLICATION

1. Submissions will be read blind. An external judge will choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, and any honorable mentions. The judge’s decision will be final.
2. 1st-3rd place winning poems will be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025. Honorable mention poems may also be published in the anthology at the discretion of the Anthology Editorial Board. Published poets will receive a complimentary anthology copy.
3. 1st-3rd place winners will receive a monetary prize: 1st $100 / 2nd $50 / 3rd $25. Poets with winning or honorable mention poems will receive a certificate.
4. By submitting an entry, you agree to give PST first publishing rights should your poem be selected for publication. Following publication, all rights revert to the author. You also grant PST non-exclusive electronic permission to post this work in archives and share it through social media and/or live presentations. We ask that you credit Tennessee Voices Anthology if the work is published elsewhere in the future. 
5. The Tennessee Voices Anthology Editorial Board reserves the right to alter line breaks in poems having more than 50 characters per line, including punctuation marks and spaces. We reserve the right to make minor revisions to works (e.g., spacing conventions for em-dashes, correction of typographical errors). 
6. Pseudonyms of winning poets will be honored in Tennessee Voices Anthology and on winner’s lists; however, legal names are required for issuing checks. 
   
   

ELIGIBILITY 

1. This contest is open to students at any level of study currently enrolled in a college or university located in Tennessee, including Tennessee-based branches of out-of-state institutions.
2. Submissions open September 20, 2024, and deadline is the earlier of October 30, 2024, or when we reach our submission max of 150 poems. If we reach the max before the deadline, we will announce that our max has been met.
3. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us immediately at [email protected] if your work is accepted elsewhere. 
4. Entries which do not conform to eligibility requirements will be disqualified. If awarded prize money, poet will be asked to refund any prize money that has been issued for submission in violation of guidelines.
5. Poems that do not conform with format and submission guidelines may be disqualified. Poets will not be notified if poems are disqualified. 

 
FORMAT AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. For this contest, we prefer poems that fit on one page (single spaced).
2. Previously unpublished poems only. Poems must be your original work, unpublished in any form, and not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Posting on social media will not be considered published.
3. Your work must be created without the aid of AI assisted technologies. 
4. While PST welcomes a variety of themes and topics, we do not accept explicitly violent or sexual content for our contests.
5. If submitting a poem with integrated art (e.g., tanka art, erasure poetry) please specify form. Do not submit original art as entries will not be returned (color copies are acceptable). 
6. Submit your entry via student email.   
7. Attach your poem as a Word document. Unless integral to the work, please use Times New Roman or similar font, 11- or 12-point, single-spaced. For poems 2 pages or longer, place the title on all pages. 
8. Ensure no identifying information appears in the document or file name. We recommend you use your poem title as your file name.
9. In your email body, include artist information: name, educational institution you are attending, college year (freshman, junior, etc.), and home address. Please include a brief third-person bio (50 words or less). 
10. Send submissions to collegiatecontestpst@gmail. Subject:  Contest Entry.
11. By submitting an entry, you agree to give PST first publishing rights should your poem be selected for publication. Following publication, all rights revert to the author. You also grant PST non-exclusive electronic permission to post this work in archives and share it through social media and/or live presentations. We ask that you credit Tennessee Voices if the work is published elsewhere in the future.

 
QUESTIONS?
Please feel free to reach out with any questions! Email us at [email protected].

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ABOUT THE JUDGE

PST is pleased to announce the judge for this contest. A poet, playwright, essayist, and editor, Linda Parsons is the poetry editor for Madville Publishing and the copy editor for Chapter 16, the literary website of Humanities Tennessee. She is published in such journals as The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, Terrain, The Chattahoochee Review, Shenandoah, and many others. Her sixth collection is Valediction: Poems and Prose. Five of her plays have been produced by Flying Anvil Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is an eighth-generation Tennessean.