Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest

Submit poems on any theme, up to 250 lines each. We will award the Tom Howard Prize of $3,500 for a poem in any style or genre, and the Margaret Reid Prize of $3,500 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $500 each (any style). The top 12 entries will be published online. This contest is proudly co-sponsored by Duotrope, which will award two-year gift certificates to the top two winners, a $100 value.

You may submit published or unpublished work. Each submission may contain up to three poems. You may make multiple submissions. Please omit your name from your entries. We prefer 12-point type or larger. Please avoid fancy, hard-to-read fonts. No restriction on age of author. All countries eligible except Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Russia, and Belarus (due to US government restrictions).

For the purpose of the Margaret Reid Prize, a poem in a traditional style employs regular meter and/or rhyme, or is written in a recognized poetic form. This includes traditional Western forms such as ballads, sonnets, and blank verse, Asian forms such as tanka and haiku, and other traditional forms.

First time entering? We prepared this brief video to guide you. See also our short entry checklist.

Entry fee: $25 for each submission of 1-3 poems.

Any writing that you submit to a Winning Writers contest must be composed using your own words, and may not contain any AI-generated text. The text, narrative voice, characterization, and imagery must come entirely from the writer. Any use of AI in the creation of your entry must be specifically described at the time of submission.

Writers may consult AI to find grammatical and technical errors, or to point out passages in a first draft that need clarification or rearranging, but may not use generative AI to rewrite those passages. AI should do no more for you than a human beta-reader or a style manual would do.

AI guidelines inspired by Columbia Fiction Foundry