The North Carolina Poetry Society sponsors a variety of awards for adult poets, published annually in Pinesong.
Our current round of contests opens on December 1, 2025 and will close on February 1, 2026.
How to Submit
For 2025, we’ve updated the submission process for our adult contests. Below each contest listing on this page you’ll see a button to submit your entry through Duosuma. Click the button to see the submission options for members and non-members. Your submission and payment processing will all be taken care of through the Duosuma platform! If you have questions, please email our adult contests coordinator, Sherry Thrasher, at sherrythrasherwriter@gmail.com.
General Contest Guidelines
- Entries must be original, unpublished (either in print or on-line), and in English.
- Entries must be original, unassisted by artificial intelligence, unpublished (either in print or on-line), and in English.
- We will disqualify, without notification, any entry that exceeds the line limit or that is the wrong form for a given contest.
- You may submit one poem per contest.
- You may not enter the same poem into more than one contest.
- Poems may be simultaneously submitted elsewhere.
- If a poem is accepted elsewhere, immediately notify NCPS by withdrawing the poem through Duosuma.
- Withdrawn poems cannot be replaced.
All submissions will be judged blind: the judges will not know the identity of the poems’ authors.
You may not enter a contest if:
- you won first place for that contest in 2025
- you are a current member of the NCPS Board
- you sponsor or endow the contest
- you are a family member, close friend, or current student of the contest’s judge
No poem will be selected if:
- the judge recognizes its author
- the poem includes the poet’s name
- the poem includes graphics, images, or pictures
- the poem exceeds the maximum number of lines for the contest
- the poet’s dues are not current or the required fee has not been paid
Judges reserve the right not to give awards. NCPS reserves the right to cancel a contest or reduce the number of prizes if there are too few submissions.
To conform to the format of the Pinesong Awards Anthology, NCPS reserves the right to work with the poet to reformat prose poems or poems with long lines.
See below for requirements specific to each contest and for submission instructions.
The winner of the Poet Laureate Award, and the first and second place winners of each contest will receive cash prizes. These poets, plus the finalists for the Poet Laureate Award, and the honorable mentions for each contest, will be invited to read their poems during Awards Day. Award winning poems and honorable mentions will be published in the Pinesong Awards Anthology. (Poet Laureate Finalists will not be printed in Pinesong so that their poems may remain eligible for other contests or publications.)
To receive an offered prize, the author must agree to grant first publication rights to the North Carolina Poetry Society. Otherwise, the offer is withdrawn. After the publication of Pinesong, publication rights will return to the authors.
CONTESTS
Poet Laureate Award:
Sponsored by Press 53
Final Judge: Jaki Shelton Green
Jaki Shelton Green, ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina, is a 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, and 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. She is the author of nine poetry collections, a poetry LP, and CD’s.
Poet Laureate Award Entry Guidelines
- A single prize of $200 for a serious poem, any subject, any style, with a maximum of 110 lines (including poem title, any epigraph, blank lines, and lines of text)
- Open to poets currently residing in North Carolina
- Fee: $10 for current NCPS members, $15 for non-members. The fee is waived for lifetime members
- An intermediate judge will select 10 finalists
- North Carolina’s poet laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, will select the winning poem
- Winning poem will be published in Pinesong
- Finalists will be invited to read at Awards Day, but their poems will not be published in Pinesong
Click the button to submit your entry:
Other Adult Categories
Entry Guidelines:
- No fee for active members of the North Carolina Poetry Society
- $10.00 fee per contest for non-members
- Entrants do not have to be residents of North Carolina
- Only one poem per contest may be submitted
- A poem may not be submitted to more than one contest
Awards:
- $100 for first place, $50 for second place
- Up to three honorable mentions in each contest
Poems limited to 36 lines
(including title, epigraph, blank lines, and lines of text)
Alice Osborn Award
Sponsored by Alice Osborn
Judge: Alexandra Umlas
Poems in any form, any style, written by adults for children 2 to 12 years of age
Click the button to submit your entry:
Carol Bessent Hayman Poetry of Love Award
Sponsored by David Manning
Judge: Pramila Venkateswaran
Any form, any style, on the theme of love
Click the button to submit your entry:
Katherine Kennedy McIntyre Light Verse Award
Sponsored by Diana Pinckney
Judge: Sandy Yannone
Light verse in any form, any style, including limericks
Click the button to submit your entry:
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award
Endowed by Pepper Worthington
Judge: Corrie Lynn White
Any form, any style, on the theme of American heritage, sibling-hood, or nature
Click the button to submit your entry:
Poetry of Courage Award
Endowed by Ann Campanella
Judge: Joan Kwon Glass
Any form, any style, on the theme of courage or crisis
Click the button to submit your entry:
Bruce Lader Poetry of Witness Award
Sponsored by Doug Stuber
Judge: Tim Siebles
Any form, any style, addressing contemporary events or issues
Click the button to submit your entry:
Jean Williams Poetry of Disability, Disease, and Healing Award
Endowed by Priscilla Webster-Williams
Judge: Amy Baskin
Any form, any style, on the theme of disability, disease, and/or healing
Click the button to submit your entry:
Poems with different line or form requirements
Bloodroot Haiku Award
Sponsored by Bill Griffin
Judge: Susan Antolin
Contemporary English language haiku (untitled)
Click the button to submit your entry:
Charles Edward Eaton Award
Sponsored by anonymous friends of Charles Edward Eaton
Judge: Indran Amrithanayagam
Sonnet or other traditional form, maximum of 50 lines (including poem title, any epigraph, blank lines, and lines of text)
Click the button to submit your entry:
Robert Golden Award
Sponsored by Nexus Poets and Linda Golden
Judge: Jane Wiseman
Any form, any style, maximum of 70 lines (including poem title, any epigraph, blank lines, and lines of text)
Click the button to submit your entry:
In Defense of Science Poetry
Sponsored by Garrett Sharpe
Judge: Katie Dozier
No specific length or lines applicable. Any form or style that engages with scientific ideas across all disciplines—climatology, oceanography, microbiology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, and beyond.
Click the button to submit your entry:
Pingback: Markets, Submission Guidelines and Contest Deadlines for January 2012 | Keiki Hendrix
Pingback: Call for artists: North Carolina Poetry Society 2013 Adult Poetry Contests (deadline Jan. 12, 2013) | Wake Forest ARTS