The Women of Ohio Poetry Award invites original poems celebrating a notable woman from Ohio.

EDIT: The deadline has now been extended to Wednesday June 4th 2025.

Women of Ohio: Poetry Award Rules

You can download full details in the file below:

Women of Ohio Poetry Award Rules Download

To enter this call for submissions, you must be an Ohio writer. You must currently live in Ohio, have been educated in Ohio, or have previously lived in Ohio for a minimum of five years.

Prizes:

1^st Prize Award: $200
2^nd Prize Award: $100
3^rd Prize Award: $50
4^th Prize Award: $50

This selected and runners up will have opportunities to take part in celebratory events as well as an exhibition of work. The exhibition may include online and in person opportunities, and runners up may also be offered to take part in it. We are also looking at the possibility of an eBook.

Judge: The judge is Zoë Brigley, a writer and editor originally from Wales in the UK, who has lived in Columbus, Ohio for 12 years. She has three award winning collections of poetry, most recently Hand & Skull. Zoë has curated several exhibitions and installations featuring art and poetry. At the Ohio State University Library, she curated collections of student work, such as ‘Poetry Broadsides and the Poetry Film’, and ‘Art and Texts on Anti-violence Advocacy’. She organized the exhibition ‘The Little Cage of Ellis Bell’ at the Urban Art Space Summer Series in Columbus Ohio with artist Victoria Brookland.

How to Enter:

EDIT: The deadline has now been extended to Wednesday June 4th 2025.

The calll is free to enter.

Submission Methods:
- Preferred: Email.
  - Please send your poem in an MS Word document along with an entry form to womenofohio@gmail.com. Please do not send files larger than 20 MB. If you have a file larger than that, please query before sending or use Google Drive or a file sharing website such WeTransfer.com.
- Also: post (only if other methods are inaccessible).
  - Please send your poem with a covering letter to Zoe Brigley Thompson, Denney Hall 510, 164 Annie and John Glenn Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210.
  - Please note that poems cannot be returned unless they are sent with a stamped, addressed envelope.

Important: Submit one poem per document. Use 12pt Arial font, single-spaced, and include the poem title.

Prizes will be awarded if we receive a sufficient number of entries. Should the minimum not be met, the organiser will carefully consider the best course of action.

By participating in this call for submissions, writers of the winning and runner-up poems kindly grant us permission to feature their poems in an exhibition and eBook anthology.

Prizes cannot be exchanged for monetary value.

Award Rules:

Eligibility: Open to those 16+.
Entry Form: Work must be entered along with an entry form.
Submission: Submit up to 5 poems. Poems must be original and unpublished, including on social media. No simultaneous submissions.
Format: Poems must be in English, typed, and no more than 49 lines long. MS Word documents, no larger than 10MB are preferred.
Judging: judged on quality, style, and impact.
Results: Winners will be notified by the end of June 2025. The judge’s decision is final.

Poetry Award Rules & Conditions