State Poet Laureate Will Determine Poetry Contest Winner

By Nancy K. Crevier

"Be Brave!" urged Lisa Schwartz, poetry editor for The Newtowner magazine. "I would love to get local poets to submit and win this contest. If you get rejected, just think, it's by the top dog!"

Ms Schwartz was referring to the ongoing International Open Poetry Contest sponsored by The Newtowner in conjunction with Newtown Arts Festival scheduled for September 15-16 at Fairfield Hills. She is excited to announce that the final judge for the poetry contest will be the Connecticut State Poet Laureate, Dick Allen.

"Mr Allen felt it was a worthy cause and he is coming on September 15 to present the $500 award to the first place winner [if he or she is present], out of the goodness of his heart," said Ms Schwartz. Should the first place winner not be from the area, Mr Allen may do a reading of the winning poem, she added.

"We are very excited and honored to have Mr Allen accept our invitation," Ms Schwartz said.

According to his biography on the state website (ct.gov/cct/cwp/view), Mr Allen "is preeminent among poets who encourage new sensibilities in poetry and who have brought to contemporary poetry a large array of subjects other than the 'self' and styles other than confessional free verse."

In addition, he has "ed poetry workshops and seminars and served as a judge for various competitions and selection committees in Connecticut (including Poetry Out Loud State Finals in 2007 and a POL workshop for teachers in 2009) and at the national level." His poems have been featured on Poetry Daily and Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac and in Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, as well as recently on the national websites of Tricycle.

Mr Allen is a retired director of creative writing and Charles A. Dana Endowed Chair Professor at the University of Bridgeport, where he taught from 1968 to 2001. He was elected to the position of State Poet Laureate in 2010 and will hold that honor through 2015.

Among his numerous achievements, Mr Allen has received the Robert Frost Prize for Poetry, the Hart Crane Poetry Prize, the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation Poetry Prize, the May Caroline Davis Poetry Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the San Jose Bicentennial Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Ingram Merrill Foundation have awarded him fellowships, and his poetry has been included in several Best American Poetry and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies.

To read samples of Mr Allen's poetry, visit poetryfoundation.org/bio/dick-allen.

The International Open Poetry Award is open to poets of all ages, worldwide. Poets may submit up to three poems, each no longer than 35 lines. Poems must be original and never before published, in print or online, and accompanied by a fee of $10 per poem.

A first place, second, and honorable mention poem will be selected from all entries submitted by June 1, by blind judging.

The first place winner will receive $500, and be published in an upcoming issue of The Newtowner, and receive two copies of The Newtowner in which it is published.

Details on entering the poetry contest can be found at www.thenewtownermagazine.com. Select the Competitions link to see submission information for the International Open Poetry Contest.

Poets who are not able to submit online may mail poems and checks made payable to The Newtowner Poetry Contest, to PO Box 456, Newtown CT 06470. Submissions must be postmarked no later than midnight, May 31.