Like poetry itself, poetry contests glow with possibility. These contests—whose names often reflect the long history of poetry, honoring past poets—carry more than the promise of publication. They list (and sometimes publish) finalists, offering a meaningful qualification for more than just the winners. Not least, they award prize money—often $1,000 or more. 

Poetry contests can be an essential inroad to the literary world for poets who want to see their work get the attention it deserves, but choosing what to submit to them can feel like a guessing game. How do we make sure our poems have a chance among the many entries these contests receive? How do we put our best foot forward as poets?

One important element to consider in how you and your work come across in a poetry contest is the manner in which you assemble groups of poems, whether the contest offers a prize for the whole group or selects one poem from the mix to be honored. Choosing how to curate and sequence your poems, deciding whether they should relate to one another, and selecting the amount of material to submit are all calculations that can affect the outcome of your submission.

I talked to several poetry contest organizers and judges who shared their strategies for assembling a poetry packet for a contest. Their advice centers on four points that will guide you as you bring your poems together.

Put your most compelling, daring, and polished poems first. When you submit to a poetry contest, your poems are typically read by initial screeners who pass along a selection of poetry packets to the judge. Screeners and editors read a lot of submissions, so they will be looking for a submission that stands out. The number-one strategy? “Put a stunning poem first—that first poem should make an editor pay attention and want to read more,” says Kirun Kapur, editor of Beloit Poetry Journal and organizer of the journal’s Adrienne Rich Prize for Poetry.

Keetje Kuipers, editor of Poetry Northwest and organizer of the James Welch Prize for Indigenous Writers, which is judged by a panel of esteemed Indigenous writers, agrees. “If the first poem isn’t super strong and legitimately compelling, the rest are only going to get a skim from screeners, says Kuipers. “And when I say compelling, I mean fire: not your most competent workshop poem, but your most daring poem.”

However, it can be difficult to determine which of your own poems will get a reader’s attention. That’s where writers groups and fellow poets come in. Traci Brimhall, who has judged numerous poetry contests, including the recent New Letters Literary Award, says that in her own earlier submissions to contests, “I personally always included one or two that I was sure were the best things I’d ever written, and one or two that my writing group liked. Many times my writing group’s opinion was a better metric than my subjective taste in my own work.”

Unity and variation in a poetry packet can both be assets, but most important is to show your voice. Many poets wonder whether the poems in their submission should be related in theme and form, or whether it’s better to show off your range as a poet. Saleem Hue Penny, assistant poetry editor of Bellevue Literary Review, says both approaches can be helpful. “I always love when a poet has a theme and they enter it from three different perspectives,” says Penny. “It gives a lot more variety to the readers and editors. It shows that an author can stretch themselves in different directions.” 

Penny’s advice especially applies to contests that select a poet as the winner on the basis of their entire packet. Some contests, on the other hand, select only a single poem. In contests like these, such as the James Welch Prize, the rule of thumb is to focus on submitting individual poems that you know will bring a room to a standstill.

Either way, the most important theme of a contest submission is you. “If you are enmeshed in a fascinating project that brings unity to your work, send a selection from it,” says Kapur. “If you have three stellar poems about completely different subjects, send them. Most editors are just looking to get a sense of a poet’s voice from the packet as a whole, which can come through powerfully regardless of unity, variety, or order.”

Contest judges appreciate risk and a sense of stakes. The judges I spoke with want poets to know they don’t need to play it safe. Chen Chen, who has judged contests for venues such as Ploughshares and Split Lip Magazine, says his main piece of advice is to include risky poems in your contest submission: “There are plenty of safe, competently written poems. We need more risky, wacky, unruly poems. Include at least one poem in the packet that is a true wild card.”

“As a writer,” adds poet Sara Borjas, who recently judged the Ninth Letter Literary Award for poetry, “I would lead with the work most aligned [with] and honest to my heart, my politics, and that I can offer with my whole chest because that’s how I like to roll. As a judge I seek this vulnerability, this attitude, and also that the poems are conscious of the material impacts of literature on people’s lived lives and handle that sacred duty responsibly.” 

Leaning into your personal poetics is how poems ultimately reach off the page, moving screeners and judges. “So much talent ‘floats to the top,’” Brimhall says, “but making a final choice is just whichever one kept echoing in my blood for a few days and maybe even rearranged my DNA a bit.”

Choose your contests thoughtfully—and follow the guidelines. When choosing where to submit, make sure to select contests that resonate with your values as a poet. As Borjas puts it, “I’d send work to a contest where I believe, through reading and research, that that judge and that venue is invested in what I’m exploring, asking, and challenging.”

It’s also important to take full advantage of contest guidelines. For example, many contests allow more pages than poems, meaning long poems are welcome provided that they are under the given page count.

When it comes to the number of poems you submit, Kuipers encourages poets to send as many poems as the guidelines allow. “Even if the packet as a whole doesn’t stand out, you never know when a single poem will speak to a judge. I know that, as a writer myself, I often misjudge what my audience will be most excited about. That random third poem you tack onto the end of your packet might be the surprise winner.” 

That said, make sure you are focusing on poems that you feel great about and have revised substantially over time—as well as making sure your poems fit with the publication you’re submitting to, says Danielle Ofri, editor in chief of Bellevue Literary Review. 

Finally, Brimhall reminds us, it’s essential to celebrate your accomplishments—including the work of assembling your poetry packet and submitting it. “Buy yourself new nail polish, treat yourself to a nice pen, make up a celebration dance to do in your kitchen,” says Brimhall. “Let yourself really feel the big moments, because they should be acknowledged.” 

Each step in the process should be embraced, because each minute you spend with your poetry is a step toward seeing your poems come alive in the world.  

Dennis James Sweeney is the author of How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published With Literary Magazines and Small Presses (New World Library, 2025). His first book, In the Antarctic Circle, won the 2020 Autumn House Press Rising Writer Prize and was celebrated as a notable poetry debut in Poets & Writers Magazine. You’re the Woods Too (Essay Press, 2023) was a Small Press Distribution best-seller and a finalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Prize. Most recently, The Rolodex Happenings won the Stillhouse Press Novella Prize.