The deadline to enter our 21st annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest is September 30. Winning Writers will award the Tom Howard Prize of $3,000 for a poem in any style or genre and the Margaret Reid Prize of $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style.

Like FundsforWriters, Winning Writers is recognized by Writer's Digest as one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers", so you can enter with confidence.

Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $300 each (any style). The top 12 entries will be published online. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope. Submit published or unpublished work online via Submittable. Most countries eligible. Length limit per poem: 250 lines.

Our 2022 winners, with remarks from final judge S. Mei Sheng Frazier

"Orion" by Maurya Kerr
Tom Howard Prize for verse in any style
"My boy came into the room and said, Mom, you are / the hound, Dad is the hunter, and I am the—" Like a boy wiping sleep from his eyes, this poem enters our environs naturally, unapologetically, seeking something. But we are the ones who find what we need in "Orion", the winning poem. We are the ones who stumble after meaning, after message, to find it standing naked in the night—stronger, brighter, surer than expected. Wiser and humbler too.

"Elegy for Childhood Written in a Language I Did Not Yet Speak, Addressed to the God I Once Knew" by Tamara Panici
Margaret Reid Prize for verse that rhymes or has a traditional style
The traditional English elegy is a true diametric balance—part mournful lament, part consolation. "Elegy for Childhood Written in a Language I Did Not Yet Speak, Addressed to the God I Once Knew" dexterously maintains perfect tension. The poem sings out in happiness and sorrow. Its methodically jumbled form, at once certain and sracmbled, reflects our thrashing attempts to put things in order; to understand what and why and how we are, and in whose image, if anyone's, our world was made.

Read more past winning entries.

This year, we have promoted Michal 'MJ' Jones to be final judge. They will be assisted by Briana Grogan and Dare Williams. The fee is just $22 for every three poems you submit. Click to submit online below or, to enter by mail, please send your poems and $22 entry fee to Winning Writers, Attn: Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street Suite B PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060-3998. You may include multiple entries in the same envelope. Checks must be drawn on US banks, payable to Winning Writers. US money orders and currency are also welcome. Please postmark your entry by September 30.