OPA’s Adult Fall Poetry Contest Opens Aug. 1

Polish your poems. It’s contest time again!
Begins: August 1, 2022
Ends: September 1, 2022

CATEGORIES
Please remember that if you are not a current member of OPA you must submit your
entries through the Non-Member Submittable portal in order for them to be accepted.
Limit: one poem per category (no duplicates).
1) Poet’s Choice: Limit 80 lines, any subject, any form. Judge: Dorothea Lasky
2) Members Only: Limit 20 lines, any subject, any form. Entrant must be a current OPA
member. Judge: Michael Minassian
3) New Poets: Limit 30 lines, any subject, any form. (A new poet is someone with no more
than two poems published in online or print journals. Self-published chapbooks and
collections count as previous publication.) Judge: Amy Miller
4) Traditional Form—The Golden Shovel: Limit 30 lines, any subject (example:
Terrance Hayes’The Golden Shovel). Judge: Keith S. Wilson
5) Theme—The Moon: Limit 40 lines, any form on the subject. Judge: A. Molotkov
6) Age 30 and Under: Limit 30 lines, any subject, any form. Open to adults age 30 or
under. Judge: James R. Merrill
7) Spanish Language: Limit 40 lines, entrant’s original poem plus translation into English,
any subject, any form. Judge: Amelia Diaz Ettinger

AWARDS
Poets Choice: 1 st place $125; 2 nd place $75; 3 rd place $50; 3 Honorable Mentions
All other categories: 1 st place $75; 2 nd place $50; 3 rd place $30; 3 Honorable Mentions
All 1 st , 2 nd , and 3rd place winners will be published on the OPA website and in the annual
anthology of prizewinners, Verseweavers.

ENTRY FEE
OPA members: Flat rate of $8 for up to seven poems (limit one poem per category).
Non-members: Flat rate of $15 for up to six poems (limit one poem per category).

DEADLINE
Submitted electronically via Submittable by September 1, 2022, 11:59pm PST.

CONTEST GUIDELINES – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. (Entries not in compliance may
be disqualified; entry fees are non-refundable.)

  1. Poems must be entrant’s own original work, unpublished in print or online (including
    self-published books), and may not have been a prior cash winner in any contest.
  2. Poet may enter one poem in each category, without duplication.
  3. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but entry fees are non-refundable. If a
    poem is accepted elsewhere, please notify OPA immediately via Submittable to withdraw
    the poem.
  4. Format poems in 12-point font size, Times New Roman. Format as .doc or .docx. PDF
    files will not be accepted.
  5. Online submissions only at https://opa.submittable.com. Submission title can be
    anything (contest title, poem title/s, poet name, etc). In upper-right corner of every page
    (one poem per page), indicate category and poem line count (title and spaces between
    stanzas do not count as lines). Poet’s name or contact information must not appear
    anywhere on the poems. Poems are read blind.
  6. In the Cover Letter field, please enter a cover letter which includes poem titles, contact
    information (name, address, phone, email), and bio (third person, 75 words or less). If
    entering multiple categories, all poems must be submitted in a single document.
  7. If you join OPA at the time you enter, you are eligible for the Member rate and the
    Members Only category. Include in your contest entry a statement that you
    have recently joined or are now joining OPA. Membership will be verified.
  8. Poems may not be edited and re-submitted; submission is final.
  9. Members may submit up to seven poems, limited to one poem per category.
    Non-members may submit up to six poems, limited to one poem per category.
  10. Winners will be notified mid to late October 2022. All 1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd place winning
    poems will be published on OPA’s website and in Verseweavers ,OPA’s annual
    anthology. All rights revert to author after publication. OPA reserves the right to use
    prizewinning poems on the OPA website, membership forms, etc.

CONTEST JUDGES
Poet’s Choice: Dorothea Lasky
Dorothea Lasky is the author of five full-length collections of poetry and one book of prose, the
newest of which is Animal (Wave Books). Her work has appeared in POETRY, The New Yorker,
The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and Boston Review. She holds an MFA from the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst and a doctorate in creativity and education from the University of
Pennsylvania. She also studied at Harvard University and at Washington University. She has
taught poetry at NYU, Wesleyan University, and Bennington College. In 2013 she was a Bagley
Wright Fellow in Poetry. Currently she is an Associate Professor of Poetry at Columbia
University’s School of the Arts, where she directs the Poetry concentration in the MFA program,
acts as a co-Faculty advisor for Columbia Artist/Teachers (CA/T), and organizes the summer
writing program. She lives in New York City. Visit her at https://www.dorothealasky.com.
Twitter and Instagram: @dorothealasky

Members Only: Michael Minassian
Michael Minassian is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online poetry journal. His
poetry collections Time is Not a River, Morning Calm, and A Matter of Timing are all available
on Amazon. A new chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, was released in 2022. For more information:
https://michaelminassian.com.

New Poets: Amy Miller
Amy Miller’s Astronauts won the 2022 Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize from Beloit Poetry Journal,
and her full-length poetry collection The Trouble with New England Girls won the 2017 Louis
Award from Concrete Wolf Press. Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Copper Nickel,
Narrative, RHINO, Terrain, Tupelo Quarterly, Willow Springs, and ZYZZYVA. She received a
2021 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Poetry and lives in Ashland, where she works for the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival and is the poetry editor of the NPR listeners’ guide Jefferson
Journal. Website http://writers-island.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.cm/amy.miller.3344913
IG: amymillerpoet
Twitter:@amymillerpoet

Traditional Form—The Golden Shovel: Keith S. Wilson
Keith S. Wilson is an Affrilachian Poet and a Cave Canem fellow. He is a recipient of an NEA
Fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, and an Illinois Arts Council Agency Award,
and has received both a Kenyon Review Fellowship and a Stegner Fellowship. Additionally, he
has received fellowships or grants from Bread Loaf, Tin House, and the MacDowell Colony,
among others. His book, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love (Copper Canyon), was recognized by the
New York Times as a best new book of poetry. https://keithswilson.com
.
Themed—The Moon: A. Molotkov
A. Molotkov is a supporter of Ukraine. His poetry collections are The Catalog of Broken Things,
Application of Shadows, Synonyms for Silence and Future Symptoms. His memoir A Broken
Russia Inside Me about growing up in the USSR and making a new life in America is
forthcoming from Propitius. He co-edits The Inflectionist Review. His collection of ten short
stories Interventions of Blood is part of Hawaii Review issue 91. Please visit him at
https://amolotkov.com.

30 and Under: James R. Merrill
James Merrill taught high school English in California and at Chemawa Indian School in Salem
— where he moved after earning his MFA at the Jack Kerouac School of Poetics, Naropa
Institute in Boulder. After that, he taught Composition and Creative Writing at University of
Colorado, Denver as well as one term as an exchange professor for CU – Denver in Beijing,
China. After retiring from Chemawa, Jim has been busy teaching ESL to immigrants and
refugees (including Ukraine) and Creative Writing at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.

Spanish Language: Amelia Diaz Ettinger
Amelia Diaz Ettinger is a self-described ‘Mexi-Rican,’ born in Mexico but raised in Puerto Rico.
As a BIPOC poet and writer, she has two full-length poetry books published: Learning to Love a
Western Sky by Airlie Press, and a bilingual poetry book, Speaking at a Time / Hablando a la
Vez by Red Bat Press, and a poetry chapbook, Fossils in a Red Flag by Finishing Line Press. Her
poetry and short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies and have received
honors and awards. A new full collection of poetry will be released by Red Bat Press in the fall.
Amelia Diaz Ettinger has an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Oregon University. Presently,
she and her partner reside in Summerville, Oregon with two dogs, two cats, and too many
chickens.
https://ameliadiazettinger.pubsitepro.com/blog
https://www.facebook.com/ameliadiazettingerOP

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