2026 SHORT POEM CONTEST

 We're having a contest! A short poem contest, to be specific, as a way of raising funds for urgent medical expenses for our Poetry Editor, Sarah Adeyemo, who is suffering from appendicitis (as well as malaria and typhoid) and expects she will very soon need surgery for it, and will definitely need doctor visits and more medication. These things aren't free in Nigeria, so we are hoping to raise as much as we can. Depending on how many submissions we get, the prize will be EITHER $100 US or, if we get fewer submissions than we'd like, half of the total submission fees. The top 3 poems will be published in our December issue.

How do you enter? Glad you asked! Between 1:00 PM EDT, September 27 and 11:59 PM EDT, September 30:

• Send a word doc or pdf with one or more poems, each no longer than 20 lines, to poemsforpoi@gmail.com. 
• This part is tricky, so pay attention: The submission fee for the first poem you submit is $10 US. The fee for each additional poem is $5 US. So if you submit 5 poems, the fee is $30 US. Send the fee via PayPal to poemsforpoi@gmail.com and add a note indicating what the payment is for.
• You can send the entry fee before sending your poems. You can also, if you want, not send poems at all and just donate to Sarah's medical expenses without participating in the contest. 

All submissions will receive a response by October 2 and we will announce winning poems by October 9. The top 3 poems will be published in our December 2026 issue.

Guidelines

• Poems must be the original work of the submitter, unpublished except on personal social media, You retain all publication rights to your poem, but we ask that you mention Poems for Persons of Interest in any subsequent publication.
• Please start each new poem on a new page.
• Name your file the title of the first poem in it. DO NOT include your name or other identifying information in the file name or the document.
• Include a short bio (no more than 40 words) in the body of your email.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine. Just let us know asap if your work is accepted elsewhere.