4 Free Poetry Contests to Enter in 2023

Here you’ll find free poetry contests that’ll help you grow as beginners and support your writing career at the same time.

Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest

Deadline: January 3, 2023

Submission requirements: It’s a poetry contest where submitted poems can be rhyming (押韵) or non-rhyming. There’s no limited entries. Winners will be contacted within 45 days of the deadline date. Published as well as unpublished works are accepted.

Prize: First Prize — $350; Second prize — $200; Third prize — $100.

In addition, the winning poems will be displayed on its website.

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest

Deadline: April 2, 2023

Submission requirements: Held by WINNING WRITERS, this poetry contest seeks today’s best humor poems. Submission should be of maximum of 250 lines. There’s no age restriction to the contest. Published as well as unpublished works are accepted.

Prize: First Prize — $2,000 plus a two-year gift certificate from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value); Second Prize — $500; Third Prize — $100.

Alpine Fellowship Poetry Contest

Deadline: January 1, 2023

Submission requirements: Applicants must be aged 18 or above with all entries in English. A single poem or a collection of poems is accepted at a time with maximum of 500 words per entry. Published as well as unpublished works are accepted.

Prize: First prize — £3,000 cash; Second prize — £2,000 travel expense; Third place — £1,000 travel expense.

Poet Lore Contest

Deadline: April 1, 2023

Submission requirements: They accept 5 poems (maximum 10 pages) in 1 single document. They do not accept works that have been previously published.

Prize: First Prize — $1,500; Second Prize — $750; Third Prize — $500.

If a child is playing sport, they should have fun. However, I believe learning that sometimes you lose is just as important.

There is a school of thought that if children are playing for fun, they should not keep score, which seems a bit backwards to me. Participation is great, but let’s also give them a goal to reach.

Sport has winners and losers, which is an important part of its make-up. I believe the greatest joy you can get from sport is when you play hard and produce a win, when you and your teammates work together for your goal.

I am a competitive person, but I don’t think you’re ever too young to start learning that putting effort into something can result in reward. I’m not saying winning should be the be-all and end-all of the experience for children, but it should at least be a choice.

Michael Jordan once said. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Without learning how it feels to win, and just as importantly how it feels to lose, we will bring up children who expect life to be easy. Life is not easy and I believe the sooner children learn that, the better off they are in the long run. But, there does need to be a balance. There are parents who always want to see their children win and will punish them when they make mistakes.

I believe the key is to teach children that they should give their all in an effort to be victorious. It does need to be fun or they won’t be interested, but they should be graceful (优雅的) in failure. Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios is an example of someone who appears to have gone too far the other way, always in the news for his terrible attitude on court.