The Connecticut Poetry Society

Prizes of $75, $50, and $25.

This contest was established to honor Lynn DeCaro, a promising young CPS member who died of leukemia in 1986.  Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 40 line limit each.  Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact info and one with NO contact info. Both copies should be marked DeCaro Contest. Include SASE, a stamped, self-addressed, stamped envelope, for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or electronically following notification. There is no entry fee for this contest.  Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Review II.

Judge: Stephen Campiglio, program associate in the Credit-Free Program at Manchester Community College, where he edits the catalogs and develops and coordinates courses in a variety of subjects for personal enrichment and professional development, including courses in creative writing, literature, film, art, and music. He also founded and coordinates the college's Mishi-maya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series, which runs monthly during the school year. More information on the series can be found at www.mcc.commnet.edu/faculty/spoken.php. Stephen was formerly a member of Noh Place Artists Cooperative in Worcester, MA, and later founded the poetry reading series Borders Book Shop in Framingham, MA (at the first Borders in New England), where he also worked as a manager and bookseller. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Anthology of New England Writers, Coe Review, The Literary Review, The Lumberyard Journal, Natural Bridge, Paragraph, Sahara,and Switched-on Gutenberg, and he will be the featured poet in the summer '08 issue of Italian Americana.

Send submissions to Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

DEHN POETRY COMPETITION

Open to college undergraduates.

Submit poems: Dec. 1-March 15 (postmark)

Prizes of $150, $100, and $50.

This contest is to honor the memory of Adolf and Virginia Dehn, visual artists who supported creativity and excellence in all art forms.  Send up to 3 unpublished poems, any form, 40 line limit each.  Include two copies of each poem: one with complete contact info, including college or university affiliation, and one with NO contact info. Both copies should be marked Dehn Competition. Include SASE, a stamped, self-addressed, stamped envelope, for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted by disc or electronically following notification. Include the entry of fee of $10; checks should be made out to Connecticut Poetry Society.  Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Review II.

Judge: Pam Nomura, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.

Send submissions to Dehn Poetry Competition, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

CPS CONTESTS: HOW ARE THEY JUDGED?

PROCESS FOR CHOOSING JUDGES

Judges are selected by the president in consultation with the contest chair and/or the board.  Judges will be announced on the website and on flyers announcing contests.  Judges receive a nominal stipend.

PROCESS FOR JUDGING

Each entrant sends in two copies of a poem: one with contact information and one without.  The Contest Chair separates the poems and marks the anonymous copies with numbers.  Judges are asked to name a first, second, and third place winner and may also select up to three honorable mentions.  Winning poems are then submitted to the contest chair, who notifies winners and those who have submitted a SASE.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

This varies widely, but in recent years between 50 and 120 different poets have participated in each contest, sending in up to three poems each.  The DeCaro and Dehn contests typically get fewer submissions than the other competitions.

PUBLICATION OF WINNERS

The winners of the Connecticut River Review Contest, the Brodine/Brodinsky Contest, and the Wallace W. Winchell Contest are published in Connecticut River Review. Winners of other CPS contests are published in Long River Run II.  Although honorable mentions are not published, the poets' names and titles of their poems are printed.

RECENT JUDGES FOR CPS CONTESTS

Brodine / Brodinsky Poetry Competition, 2007: Steve Straight, professor of English and director of the poetry program at Manchester Community College, author of The Water Carrier. Straight has directed the Connecticut Poetry Circuit and the Seminar Series for the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.

Al Savard Memorial Contest, 2007: FAITH VICINANZA, published poet, photographer, literary events manager, and information technology consultant.

Connecticut River Review Contest, 2007: ELOISE BRUCE, author of Rattle (Cavankerry Press), active in organizations related to theater, poetry, education, and social justice.

Lynn DeCaro Contest, 2007: RAVI SHANKAR, Poet-in-Residence and Professor at Central Connecticut State University and founding editor of the online journal http:..www.drunkenboat.com.  His first book of poems, Instrumentality (Cherry Grove, 2004), was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Awards.

Dehn Competition, 2007: NORAH POLLARD, author of two books of poetry, Leaning In and Report from the Banana Hospital (both published by Antrim House), and recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize.

Wallace W. Winchell Contest, 2007: Vivian Shipley is the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and the Editor of Connecticut Review from Southern Connecticut State University. She has published five chapbooks and her seventh book of poems, Hardboot: Poems New & Old, (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2005) won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writ! ing. Sh e won the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Literary Community from the Library of Congress Connecticut Center for the Book and the 2005 SCSU Faculty Scholar Award. Gleanings: Old Poems, New Poems (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2003) won the Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. When There Is No Shore, also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won the 2003 Connecticut Book Award for Poetry from the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the 2002 Word Press Poetry Prize.

Winning Poems from the CT Poetry Society contests can be view as PDF files by clicking on the links Below:

Wallace W. Winchell Contest

Dehn Competition, 2007

Lynn DeCaro Contest, 2007

Connecticut River Review Contest

Al Savard Memorial Contest

Brodine / Brodinsky Poetry Competition 2006

Brodine / Brodinsky Poetry Competition 2007

CPS Announces Winners of Decaro Contest for 2008.

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest for high school students.   Judge Steve Campiglio selected these poems:

1st prize: “Schizophrenia (for my brother)” by John Harrity of Hartford, CT

2nd prize: “Monet’s Water Lily Pond” by Abby Sweeney of Enfield, CT

3rd prize: “Outer Banks” by Jane Youngberg of the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT

Judge Steve Campiglio commented on the first prize poem: “This poem was outstanding from the very first read, with its heartfelt subject matter of a mentally ill brother brought to startling life through the poem’s vivid imagery. The poet couples unusual phrases such as  “His mind was a / brownstone boulder / crushing his shoulders,” “cold junk soldier / who called his voice God’s,” and “his head was / unhooked from his eyes” with visual narrative of the brother carrying a “plastic bag purse” who wears “orange hairnets” and “dollar store trinkets” and smokes “grandmother’s cigarettes.”  We are asked to consider if those who don’t fit in with society may in fact be the visionary ones who “hear the night sky speaking” when others can only see the material apparatus.
Comments on the other award winners: Regarding the second prize poem, Campiglio commented, “Ekphrasis is the practice of rendering visual art into creative writing. This poem offers an admirable treatment of Monet, with its innovative technique of speaking through not only “the painter” but “the canvas” and “the bridge.” The poet’s interesting use of this form transcends the words themselves.”   The third prize poem offers a “sensual description of sisters playing by the seaside. The rhythmic and evocative language mimics the ebb and flow of the tide and brings to life a child’s wonder of nature.”
Judge Stephen Campiglio is program associate in the Credit-Free Program at Manchester Community College, where he develops and coordinates courses in a variety of subjects for personal enrichment and professional development, including courses in creative writing, literature, film, art, and music. He also founded and coordinates the college's Mishi-maya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series, which runs monthly during the school year.

CPS Announces Winners of Connecticut River Review Contest 2008:

From over 300 entries, judge Kim Bridgford selected these poems.

1st prize: David A. Prodell, Burlington, VT, "He Used to Rake Leaves."

2nd prize: Art Schwartz, Rockville Center, NY, "Lola High upon my Shoulders"

3rd prize: Jeannine Dobbs, Merrimack, NH, "Notes on Another Generation:

Honorable mentions: Gary Kay, Pembroke Pines, FL, "Reading Robert Frost in Grade 7, 1962," and Constance Snyder, East Thetford, VT, "After the Thaw." The winning poems will be posted here shortly.

Winchell Contest

February 9, 2008 ----------------Click Here to View Winning Poems

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Wallace Winchell Poetry Contest. Out of approximately 130 entries, Judge Vivian Shipley selected these poems:

1 st prize: “Dear Theo” by Nicholas Giosa of Wethersfield , CT

2 nd prize: “A Fragment Is” by Shari O’Brien of Toledo , OH

3 rd prize: “Dear Laura Ingalls Wilder” by Julia Meylor Simpson of East Providence , RI

About the first prize poem, Shipley stated, “The choice of subject matter, Van Gogh’s brother, is what drew me to this imaginative and original poem again and again. The point of view creates an intimate involvement with Theo and caused me to think about the man and his role in preserving his brother’s artistic masterpieces that I would otherwise never have known.”

Shipley reacted to the second prize winner this way: “What a lively exploration of grammar! I was immediately drawn into the poem by the first two lines—a question no English teacher could resist… fine use of a unique metaphor of the sentence fragment—”

And about the third prize winner she had this to say, “The precision of detail is what initially attracted me to this poem. I also admire how the poet intertwined a youthful passion for reading, the imagination, and years later, the physical life present in the real Dakota prairie.”

Vivian Shipley, our judge for this contest, is Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and the Editor of Connecticut Review from Southern Connecticut State University. She has published five chapbooks and her seventh book of poems, Hardboot: Poems New & Old, (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2005) won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writing.