GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Public Library has announced the return of the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition for 2023. Submissions will be accepted February 1-28.
The competition is open to Kent County residents or students. Poets can submit one original, unpublished poem. Submitting a poem into the competition is free.
The winners selected in different categories will have their poems published in Voices. They will also receive a cash award, and participate in the annual Awards Reading Ceremony during the Festival of the Arts in June.
The first tier of the competition will be judged by local poets, who will decide which poems continue on to the national judge. The national judge will make the final decisions in the competition.
The 2023 national judge will be Kelly Grace Thomas. In 2020, Thomas’ first full-length collection, Boat Burned, was released. Her poems have also appeared in Best New Poets, 32 Poems, Los Angeles Review, Muzzle, and Sixth Finch.
The guidelines for submitting a poem in the competition can be found below:
- Open to Kent County, MI residents of all ages
- Open to students attending classes within Kent County, MI, including GVSU
- Open to students who are residents of Kent County but attend school elsewhere
- Free to enter
- One poem per person will be accepted
- The poem must be original and unpublished.
Submissions for the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition will be accepted February 1-28.
