Monthly Contests

Monthly Contests are a feature of each regular meeting September through May, including the July Summer conference. There are no meetings or contests in June, August, and November. There is no entry fee for these contests.

Rules for both contests:

One-line titles and spaces between stanzas do not count as lines, but all other lines do–including second line of a two-line title, epigraphs, form identifications, etc. No line in a poem may contain more than 60 characters, including punctuation marks and spaces. Poems must be unpublished in any media.

PST has first publishing rights to first place winners of the General Contest. Laugh Lines winners are not published.

  • General Contest — 28 Line limit, any subject, any form. The General Contest is judged by a CriticJudge, who is selected by the Monthly Contest Chairman. The Critic Judge selects the winners of the Critic’s Award. 1st place ($25), 2nd place ($9), 3rd place ($5), and ten additional poems, five of which will be awarded book prizes in order of judge’s ranking.
  • Laugh Lines Contest — For the best humorous poem, 16-line limit, $7.50 award. The previous winner judges the Contest.

Eligibility of Entries:

  • Monthly Contests are open only to Active Dues-Paid Members, Life Members, Sustaining and Supporting Members, Student Members, and Officers. (Note: Associate, Honorary, and Library Members may not enter the monthly contests.)
  • Only one poem may be entered in the General Contest, and only one poem may be entered in the Laugh Lines contest. Entries must be the original work of the contestant.
  • No line in a poem may contain more than 60 characters, including punctuation marks and spaces.
  • A poem is not eligible which, in whole or part has been published in print, presented over radio, television or on the Internet, accepted for publication, is in the hands of an editor for consideration, or entered in any contest running concurrently.
  • An eligible poem may not be withdrawn after its submission. The winner of the Critic’s Award is ineligible to enter the following month’s General Contest. (The July winner may not enter the September General Contest.) The winner of the Laugh Lines contest may not enter the next one since he/she will be the judge.
  • The Monthly Contest Chairman will eliminate entries that fail to conform to the rules.

Preparing and Submitting Entries–Two Options:

  1. Submit one typewritten copy for each contest entered. Type General Contest or Laugh Lines Contest in the upper left-hand corner. Type the author’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address in the upper right-hand corner.

    Mail entries to Monthly Contest Chairman:

    Lynn Roberts Grice
    9611 Magnolia Ridge Drive
    Houston, TX 77070

    OR

  2. (Preferred Method) Email submissions to monthlycontestchair@poetrysocietyoftexas.org. Please include – PST Monthly Contest in the subject line. Prepare entries as in Option #1. Send one copy of each entry as .doc or .docx attachments (not in the body of the email, please). No PDFs, JPG’s, artistic fonts, or artwork etc., will be accepted.

Entries must be received by the Monthly Contest Chairman by the 15th of the previous month.