About the Contests

The Connecticut Poetry Award
April 1st - May 31st

The Al Savard ContestDec 1st to
Jan 30, 2013
Click Here.
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2012 Winners
Winning Poems

The Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest
Aug. 1 to Sept 30

The Lynn DeCaro
Poetry Contest
Jan 15 to March 15th

WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

Winners 2010
Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest.  From a strong field of submissions, judge Pit Pinegar selected these poems:

1st prize: Trent Nutting for “Clippings”

2nd prize: Becky Dennison Sakellariou for “These bones know no ideology”

3rd prize: Ellen LaFleche for “Bayou-scape”

Honorable Mentions: John Terenzi for “Still Life with Blue Roses,” Kathleen Serocki for “Four Generations” and  Constance Chambers for “For the Migrant Ancestors.”

Ms. Pinegar said that she chose the first place poem because “the language—choice of words and sounds—was stunning, and the poem itself, unfolding to the perfect last line, is so very poignant—the man who makes his connections in the way he can; a universal truth and one that rarely is honored.”
Of the second prize poem, she stated, “I love the horrible imagery in this poem, the way the poet has created the point at which history and the now meet, the dead and the living. The poet has refused to let those human beings become by-gone, long-gone casualties who lose significance.”
And of the third place winner: “I’ve read some of the many poems written about the oil spill, but none more effectively elegiac than this one. It’s images are both unexpected and heart-stopping.” 
There were numerous candidates for honorable mention status, but the three listed rose to the top.

About the judge: Pit Pinegar is the author of three collections of poetry: Nine Years Between Two Poems, The Possibilities of Empty Space, and The Physics of Transmigration. The recipient of many awards, she is a teaching artist at The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and The Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

LYNN DECARO POETRY CONTEST

Open to Connecticut high school students only (grades 9 - 12)

Jan. 15, 2013 to - March 15th 2013 Deadline

Winners 2009/2010 contest:

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest for high school students. Judge Marilyn Johnston selected these poems:

1st prize: “Rome” by Lindsey Pellino of Vernon

2nd prize: “Harvest” by Cara Dorris of Glastonbury

3rd prize: “so much happens in my head” by Courtney Littlewood of Mystic

Honorable Mentions: “In Homage to M.C. Escher” by Timothy West of Vernon and “Free Fall” by Alison Steed of Vernon

Judge Marilyn Johnston commented, “It was difficult to make the final choices; I am glad to see the art of poetry is thriving among so many talented practitioners in our high school population.”

On the first prize poem, Johnston said, “This poem stood out strongly for its originality, imagination, and broad sensibility. This poem is ambitious, risky, yet successful because of the truly beautiful music of its short and long lines and the profoundly thought-provoking statements and images this voice speaks…a tour de force.”

Comments on the other award winners: Regarding the second prize poem, Johnston commented, “I was very impressed by the deft handling of memory and subtle shifts of time in this poem.” Miss Johnston said that the third prize winner bonds love and fear together in “a tension that runs throughout…the central image is unforgettable.” In describing the honorable mention poems, she used words such as vivid, imaginative, well-written, dramatic, and moving.

Judge Marilyn E. Johnston’s books, Weight of the Angel and Silk Fist Songs were published by Antrim House Books. She directs a popular reading series in the Bloomfield Public Libraries for Connecticut poets.

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 electronically following notification. There is no entry fee for this contest. Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Run. Send submissions to Lynn DeCaro Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.

WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

AL SAVARD MEMORIAL POETRY CONTEST
Dec 1, 2012 to Jan 30, 2013

AL SAVARD MEMORIAL POETRY CONTEST Guidelines (closed)

Open only to Connecticut poets. Free for CPS Members Submit poems: December 1- January 30th 2013 (postmark) Prizes of $150, $75, and $50. 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 Savard Contest. Include SASE for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted electronically following notification. Send fee of $10 for up to three poems; please make check out to Connecticut Poetry Society. There is no entry fee for CPS members. Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Run .Send entries to Al Savard Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.

2011- Judge -Maria Mazziotti Gillan, winner of the American Book Award for All That Lies Between Us, is the Founder and the Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ.  She is also the Director of the Creative Writing Program and a Professor of Poetry at Binghamton University-State University of New York. She has published eleven books of poetry and is the editor of the Patterson Literary Review.

WINNERS 2010

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Al Savard Memorial Poetry Competition.

Judge John Stanizzi selected these poems:

1st prize: “1967” by Ocean Vuong of Glastonbury

2nd prize: “Eagle’s Nest” by Linda Maselli Richardson of Bolton

3rd prize: “What the Sky Holds” by Tere Foley of Manchester Honorable Mention: “A Classic Among My Love Stories” by Michael Benedetto of Middletown

Mr. Stanizzi felt a strong connection between his own experiences in Viet Nam and the descriptions in “1967.” He commented on the stunning imagery and the powerful final lines of the first place poem. “I was just delighted to see such a powerful, relevant, poignant, and unforgettable poem in the group.”

Stanizzi particularly admired the idea behind “Eagle’s Nest,” the 2nd place winner, and he appreciated the “startling uniqueness of the opening” and the imagery throughout the 3rd prize poem. He commented on the underlying tension of the honorable mention poem. “I got the feeling that, through the simplest language, that there was nothing simple at the heart of this poem.”

Judge John Stanizzi teaches English at Manchester Community College and Bacon Academy. In 1998 The New England Association of Teachers of English named him The New England Poet of the Year. His books include Sleepwalking, Ecstasy Among Ghosts, and a chapbook called Windows.

AL SAVARD MEMORIAL POETRY CONTEST Guidelines (closed)

Open only to Connecticut poets. Free for CPS Members Submit poems: March 1- April 30th 2013 (postmark) Prizes of $150, $75, and $50. 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 Savard Contest. Include SASE for results only (no poems will be returned). Winning poems must be submitted electronically following notification. Send fee of $10 for up to three poems; please make check out to Connecticut Poetry Society. There is no entry fee for CPS members. Prize winning poems will be published in Long River Run .Send entries to Al Savard Poetry Contest, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

Simultaneous submissions are okay. If a poem is taken by another venue, we would expect to be notified of that immediately so that it could be withdrawn from the CPS contest.

2010 Al Savard Judge: John Stanizzi teaches English at Manchester Community College and Bacon Academy. In 1998 The New England Association of Teachers of English named him The New England Poet of the Year. His books include Sleepwalking, Ecstasy Among Ghosts, and a chapbook called Windows.

WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

Judge for the 2009 Al Savard Poetry Contest was Charles Rafferty

The Conneticut Poetry Award
April 1, 2012 to May 31, 2012

Winners 2010

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2010 Connecticut Poetry Award. From a large, very strong field of submissions, Judge Dana Sonnenschien selected these poems:

1st prize: “The true scale of terror” by Salita S. Bryant of New York, NY
2nd prize: “Touch” by David A. Prodell of Burlington, VT
3rd prize: “Dark Matter” by Jason Michael MacLeod of Missoula, MT

Honorable Mentions: “Fresh Meat” by Laurie Soriano, “Not Flowers” by Brendan Noonan, and “Morningstar” by Lawrence O’Brien

Ms. Sonnenschien chose the first prize poem “for its power, precision, and persuasiveness. This poem's cascade of sensory detail culminates in an epiphany stark, paradoxical, and shifting in scale to express a universal truth: a child's 'frozen' helplessness before a violent parent is as absolute as an adult's watching ‘the calving of an iceberg.’ "

About the second place poem, she remarked that “the imagery and phrasing are precise and yet natural, allowing the poet to address universal issues of childhood and parenthood, and to express deep feeling, without easy sentimentality.”
Ms. Sonnenschien called the third prize poem, “a fine metaphysical piece,” and appreciated the poet’s use of “warm, vivid details.”

Judge Dana Sonnenschien is the author of two poetry collections: Natural Forms and Bear Country, as well as two chapbooks. She is a professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University.

The Connecticut Poetry Award, honoring founders Winchell, Brodine and Brodinsky Formerly the BRODINE/BRODINSKY POETRY COMPETITION & WALLACE WINCHELL CONTESTS.

WINNERS OF CPS CONTESTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO WIN ANY CPS CONTEST THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

Winners of the Connecticut Poetry Award 2009

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 Connecticut Poetry Award. From a large, very strong field of submissions, Judge Jack Bedell selected these poems:

1 st prize: “Moonshine” by Courtney Sender of Montvale, New Jersey

2 nd prize: “The Facts” by Pat Hale of West Hartford, Connecticut click here to view the poem

3 rd prize: “The Green Sweater” by Sharon Charde of Lakeville, Connecticut click here to view poem

Honorable Mentions : “Burnt Toast and Heavy Starch” by Loretta Diane Walker, “Punk Portrait” by Helene Pilibosian, and “The Foreclosure” by Lee Alexander

Mr. Bedell admired the first prize poem’s “sense of ambition and daring.” He went on to say that the poem showed “fresh language and a rare combination of fearlessness and accuracy. The leaps between movements are just brilliant…”

Second prize poem “ The Facts” demonstrates a “flawless marriage of memory-driven narrative and lyric beauty…the poet has a phenomenal sense of line and a consistency of tone…I was absolutely enthralled by the movement of the poem…”

“The Green Sweater,” Mr. Bedell said, managed to sustain “narrative rhythm in a short-lined poem…the language is pitch-on, and the focus (image-by-image) is exactly where it needs to be to keep the reader inextricably involved in the scene.”

Judge Jack Bedell is the Woman’s Hospital Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as editor of Louisiana Literature and director of Louisiana Literature Press. His most recent books are Come Rain, Come Shine ( Texas Review Press) and French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (LaLit Press).

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. Although honorable mentions are not published, the poets' names and titles of their poems are printed.

RECENT JUDGES FOR CPS CONTESTS

Judge for 2009 Decaro Contest: Bessy Reyna is an opinion columnist for the Hartford Courant. Her poems and stories are found in U.S. and Latin American literary magazines and anthologies. Reyna’s latest book, The Battlefield of Your Body , a bilingual poetry collection, was released in June, 2005 by the Hill-Stead Museum

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.

The Connecticut Poetry Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest. From a very strong field of submissions, Judge Brian Clements selected these poems:

1 st prize: “I’ll Know the Title Next Time I Hear the Train Whistle” by Mark Wagenaar of Charlottesville, Virginia

2 nd prize: “ Nome” by Jeanne Wagner of Kensington, California

3 rd prize: “How to Teach a Child about Death” by Amanda Auchter of Houston, Texas

Honorable Mentions: “Prequel to Genesis and the Missing Second Book: Coral Castle” by L. Christain, “A Shadow Denser than Night” by Robert J. Enright, “crow valley” by Elizabeth Myhr, “Subject Line: Rain is General” by Susan Holahan, and “Forgettery” by Kathleen Serocki.

Mr. Clements stated that first prize poem “ seduces with its depth of imagination, mythology of mind, and clarity of vision. The poem’s landscape… is lushly imaged, but also lushly aligned with the inscape, where distance and blossom and trains and a ringing bell all signal the simultaneous beauty and melancholy…”

His comments on the other winners: “ Nome ” succeeds, like John Ashbery’s “Instruction Manual,” by taking us in vivid detail to a place where the author or speaker is not and perhaps never has been…making quite present an absence, making us feel intimately the loss of a thing never held.”

“How to Teach a Child about Death” makes intimate and tender again a moment that verges on the cliché, the sentimental; but the poet’s alert attention to the body, whether living or dead, and to the things that grab the attention of the living--butterscotch, braids, a corpse’s stitched lip--keeps this poem vital…”

Judge Brian Clements is Professor of Writing at Western Connecticut State University and coordinator of WestConn’s MFA in Professional Writing. He edits Sentence: a journal of prose poetics and Sentence’s parent press, Firewheel Editions. His most recent books are Disappointed Psalms (Meritage Press) and And How to End It (prose poems from Quale Press).

Winners of this contest should find their prize money included with this notice. They are asked to submit the winning poems electronically to connpoetry@comcast.net so that they will be included on the web site and in the next issue of Connecticut River Review, which is sent free of charge to all CPS members. CRR is generally published in late summer, so look for it then. Additional copies may be ordered by sending a check for $10 (made out to CPS) to CRR Order, CPS, PO Box 270554, West Hartford, CT 06127.

Kudos to the winners and many thanks to all who entered; the level of the writing was high. You can find out more about our contests and publications at www.ct-poetry-society.org.

Poetry Critique Checklist

Before you send a poem somewhere consider these items:

Theme or Essence

What is the core truth of this poem?

Does it come across clearly? Is it memorable?

Would you want to read this poem again?

Could you imagine its meaning changing over time?

Story

Is there a clear story?

Too much? Too little?

Are there any parts left out? Is there something more you want to know?

Can the reader relate to the story on some universal level?

Does any part of the poem distract you, confuse you, or otherwise take you “out” of the poem?

Does the poem “show” instead of “tell”?

Length

Is the poem too long? Does it end before the end? Where?

Are there lines/stanzas that could be removed?

Imagination

Is there something new or fresh about the poem?

Does it use a novel image or analogy?

Are the images concrete, with sufficient detail?

What is the dominant feeling or emotion of the poem?

Meter/rhyme/word choice/line breaks/punctuation

How does the poem look on the page? Is it in balance? If not, is this purposeful?

Does the pacing serve the purpose of the poem?

Are there any words that are hard to pronounce, that stop the flow, or that you do not understand or recognize?

Are line breaks and punctuation consistent? Do they serve the purpose of the poem?

Music

Do the words flow musically, harmonically?

Does the poem use alliteration, repletion, etc. effectively?

Is the poem beautiful (or terribly beautiful)?

Complexity, novelty

Does the poem have range?

Is it clever?

Does it work on multiple levels?

Is there a turn, or surprise at the end? Is it effective?

Is the poem unpredictable?

2012 Al Savard Winning Poems

1st prize: “Mapping the Family Farm: 16 Steps” by JoAnne Bauer of Hartford

Mapping the Family Farm: 16 Steps

 1
Chase the chickens around the barnyard until the nasty goose nips your pointer finger.
 2
Invite all stuffed animals to a tea party; “borrow” Gram’s fancy cups but don’t tell her; serve flat ginger ale.
 3
In the sewing room, comb dollies’ hair with Mommy; pretend a pregnant reflection in the stainless handle of the large industrial flatiron dad bought for their first anniversary, which she refuses to use.
4
Push that snow-suited tiny brother as he rolls a snowball smiling ’til he tumbles -- a snowy ball himself -- into a white drift.
5
Bring your Ginny doll, in her homespun wedding gown, down the meadow where Dad’s two beagles rout out pheasants for shooting
6
Skip past Gram’s hollyhocks to the mulberry tree, home of your imagined boyfriend (and his wife and kids).
7
Sit four steps up on the walnut staircase as if you’re at the theater and know nothing about that caterpillar.
8
Run like the wind on bowlegs to where the trapped red fox raided the hen house.
9
Hide out in the crotch of the sugar maple as the kitchen oven smolders Wheaties boxes; build a teepee of old quilts, never to enter that smoke-stenched house, ever again.
10
Catch butterflies with your sister; perfume their wings then watch them slam into tall
six-over-six windows in the bedroom you share.
11
Pretend you weren’t peering into the occupied outhouse.
12
Scamper down the sunflower path with Bruce; let him kiss you; don’t tell mommy.
13
Fill the basement with chalk dust trying to teach the visiting cousin to print a swear word on the new Christmas-gift blackboard.
14
Crank the pencil-sharpener-pretend-phone behind the kitchen door; place a call to your younger brother-husband; remind him to buy the lima beans on his way from work.
15
Scurry past skunk odor trapped under the front porch of the farmer’s wife, who permits soap-opera watching every afternoon.
16
Sit very very still, feet dangling off the plush burgundy couch when Daddy, kissing Mom on the neck, returns to the family one Sunday afternoon.

2nd prize: “a short poem (because you asked)” by Gemma Matthewson of Guilford

a short poem (because you asked)


of course I would be happier if I were taller

effortlessly reaching the undented cans
labeled "nature’s promise organic
seasoned with select herbs”
instead of settling for “our own store brand
with extra growth inhibiting hormones"

words such as lithe -
willowy - statuesque would trail me
as I glide through life like a cheetah
wearing wide brimmed hats
without looking disproportional

being able to see actual thoughts rise
from the top of people’s heads
I would be a better conversationalist

I would not know the humiliation of shopping
at places called Petite Sophisticate
(nobody’s fooled)
time would not be squandered
hemming sleeves and cuffs while
taller friends stuff fudge brownies
invisibly into seven more inches of torso

the top of the refrigerator would be dust free

collective arm pit odor would not be at nose level

watching a foreign film at the art house cinema
I would not have to extrapolate the lower lines
of subtitles disappearing
behind heads and shoulders

there was a town in Sicily -
my short friend reminisced -
where everyone was exactly his size
and distantly related on his mother’s side

and they all smiled and prospered
and welcomed him -
happy to be small
and living on the side of a volcano

how shortsighted

3rd prize: “In a Single Bed” by Suzy Lamson of Waterford

In a Single Bed

She lies in a single bed
still not used to it,
widowed several decades ago.
Through winter and summer

still not used to it.
Laundry piles up slowly.
Through winter and summer
washes are seldom.

Laundry piles up slowly
a month between beauty parlor visits –
washes are seldom
where someone’s hands massage her.

A month between beauty parlor visits,
her hair shampooed and styled,
where someone’s hands massage her –
touch she regularly counts on.

Her hair shampooed and styled,
she looks forward to her semi-annual doctor visit,
touch she regularly counts on,
her blouse open, chest bared to the stethoscope.

She looks forward to her semi-annual doctor visit,
cool fingers upon her wrist.
Her blouse open, chest bared to the stethoscope,
she lies naked on a paper-covered table,

cool fingers upon her wrist.
She willed her body to science.
She’ll lie naked on a paper-covered table
while unknown students examine her.

She willed her body to science
(widowed several decades ago)
while unknown students examine her.
She lies in a single bed.

Honorable Mentions go to Gilbert Rexford Moon for Christmas, 1944, Nicholas Giosa for Requiem for the Living, and Mary Buell Volk for Violet Deaths.

HM- Mary Buell Volk

Violet Deaths

This May bloom of violets is a wild
and riotous thing; an improvisation,
flocked in sprawling lacy patterns
across my growing lawn.

Yesterday I picked as many as my back allowed,
plunged their leggy stems in water, providing
life support in a glass (a rescuing gesture full of guilt).
This morning I found them slumped against the coffee maker.

So I pulled the mower to life and ran the rest over,
hoping they would duck.  But purple scraps exploded,
fell confetti-like; then splattered like alien blood across a carpet.

It hurts me either way - these small deaths.
Violets should remain unwrangled, prickling
suburban gardeners with their random feisty sprawling.
But the grass grows thick and long.

I wish I could leave these things alone –
let them go - along with all
that is unsolvable.

Long River Run

Submissions
May to September

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