Poetry Book of the Year contest for PSNH Members

Poetry Society of New Hampshire Best Poetry Book of the Year Award for Members

For the first time ever the Poetry Society of New Hampshire will be conducting a Best Poetry Book of the Year contest for members.

Here are the rules. Please read them carefully:

The book must be a first edition published in the year 2021 only. That date must be printed in the book itself.

It can be a poetry book or chapbook.

It must be a published, printed book, not a manuscript or ebook.

It must not be an anthology with other poets. There must be only one author.

Only one book per author per entry. All other books by that author would require separate entry fees.

Self-published books will also be considered.

The poet must be a paid member of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire at the time of submittal but did not have to be a member of the Society when the book was published. Members do not have to reside in New Hampshire.

The membership should extend to at least May of 2022 so that the winner will be a member when the award is announced. There will only be one winner of the contest, but the judge will decide on how many finalists and honorable mentions should be recognized.

There will be a $12 reading fee, which includes $10 to cover the judge’s honorarium and a cash award for the winner as well as a $2 administrative fee for the Society.

To sign up for the contest, send the title, date of publication, publisher, and membership status to Jimmy Pappas at events@psnh.org. If you have any questions, please contact Jimmy at the same email address. You will then receive information about how to pay the fee. You will also be provided with the mailing address for the book.

For questions about membership or if you want to join the Society, please contact membership@psnh.org.

The book must be mailed to the judge’s address with a postmark no later than January 31, 2022. It must be the actual printed book and not an ebook or photocopy. The book will not be returned.

An April 12th Tuesday night event at 7:00 PM ET will be set up to announce the winner on Zoom. Finalists will be notified ahead of time. The finalists will be screen sharing a few poems from their books at the Zoom event before the winner is declared.

The winner will receive exposure on our new website, on our social media platforms, and in our journal The Poets’ Touchstone.

The 2022 judge will be Luke Jacob, author of The Seed Vault. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Luke’s book to show our support for his efforts, check out his website:
http://lucasjjacob.com/

Luke will be doing a Zoom presentation of his own on Tuesday, March 8th, at 7:00 PM ET. As always, we hope to see you there.