38th Annual Poetry Contest - Judge Robert Hammond Dorsett, Deadline 30 June 2025

CSPS 38TH ANNUAL CONTEST — DEADLINE 30 JUNE 2025

This contest is open to all poets, whether or not they are members of the CSPS. The Contest is managed by CSPS President, Maja Trochimczyk, and adjudicated by an experienced, published poet who is approved for this roe by the CSPS Board. A different poet is selected to judge the CSPS Poetry Contest each year. Poems must be postmarked or uploaded to our website or from March 1st through June 30th. Reading fees for all entries, domestic or international, are $3.00 per poem for members (of CSPS or other state poetry societies affiliated with NSPS) and $6.00 per poem for non-members. There is an 80-line (two page) limit for each poem. 

Chinese Fringe Tree in Descanso Gardens, CA - photo by Maja Trochimczyk

AWARDS: Winning entries will be announced on our website, blog, and in the CSPS Newsbriefs in September 2025 and published in the fourth issue of the CQ in December 2025. Poets winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes receive $100, $50 and $25, respectively. Six Honorable Mentions may also be awarded. The Honorable Mention poems and other submissions are forwarded to the CQ and the Poetry Letter editors for possible inclusion in the subsequent issues. Contest results are posted on our website. 

SUBMISSION: Please submit unpublished poems, written in English, with 80-line (two-page) limit per poem, with reading fees, using one of two options.  If submitting by mail, send a cover letter with all poet information and a list of submitted poems, one copy of each poem with no poet identification, plus an email or SASE for contest results (only for those poets who do not have an email address), to: 

Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President & Contest Chair

P.O. Box 4288, Sunland, California 91041-4288

More information: CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com

You may also upload your poems and pay reading fees at our website:www.californiastatepoetrysociety.org, by first registering your account with a password, and then login-in to upload poems and pay the fees. If you find it too difficult to register on the website, you may submit your reading fees via PayPal with a note stating  "Annual Contest Reading Fees" with your name and contact information, including State Poetry Society you are a member of, to PayPal account while also emailing the poems to CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com, Please make sure your poems were not published in any format (print or online).

CONTEST JUDGE - ROBERT HAMMOND DORSETT

Robert Dorsett, born in Jersey City NJ, graduated from Rutgers University with a major in biology and a minor in mathematics. Subsequently, he received an MD degree from the University of NY and had a residency in psychiatry, and then pediatrics, at Cornell. He was a naval officer during the Viet Nam War and studied Chinese at the Chinese University in Hong Kong during the Mao years. 

His first book, translated along with David Pollard from the memoirs of the dissident Gao Ertai, was published in 2009 by HarperCollins (In Search of My Homeland: A Memoir of a Chinese Labor Camp). He second book, a translation from the poems of Wen Yiduo, was published by BrightCity Books in 2014 (Stagnant Water & Other Poems), and the third book of translation was a selection of Ai Qing, published by Penquin/Random House and throughout Europe as a Viking Classic. 

He has a fellowship in poetry from MacDowell and an MFA from NYU. His own poems have appeared in Poetry, The Literary Review, North American Review, Southern Poetry Review, the Wallace Stevens Journal, Acumen, Stand, California Quarterly, and elsewhere. He has given readings at the University of Iowa, University of Nevada, Pomona, at the Federal Court in Boston, and at other venues.

https://www.roberthammonddorsett.com/ 

Chinese Fringe Tree in Descanso Gardens, CA - photo by Maja Trochimczyk

After my Father’s Funeral 

Candle—

shadows light

an

altar. A

lamp revises

a room.

Nights,

stars in

italics. A

name casts

Braille upon

a stone.

by Robert Hammond Dorsett 

Chinese Fringe Tree in Descanso Gardens, CA - photo by Maja Trochimczyk

 

June 30, 2024 Deadline for CSPS Annual Poetry Contest Judged by Marlene Hitt

The California State Poetry Society is pleased to announce its 37th Annual Poetry Contest. Submissions are accepted from May 1st – June 30th, 2024. The Judge is Marlene Hitt. 

SUBMISSIONS: Up to 10 poems per one poet may be submitted with a limit of 80 lines per poem. All poem should be previously unpublished, including print books or journal publication, posts on social media, websites, blogs, and online journals. Poems must be written in English, with translation provided in notes if words or phrases from other languages are used. Submissions are only by mail, with clearly printed poems on unmarked pages, with one-sided printing, and no identifying information about the poet (no name, address, email, etc.)

PRIZES:  $100, $50, $25 Cash for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prizes, plus publication in the California Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 4 (2024 Winter). 

READING FEES: CSPS Members, $3.00/poem; Non-members, $6.00/poem. Submit the reading fees only BY CHECK payable to CSPS or California State Poetry Society with a note "Annual Contest 2024."

WINNERS: Winners will be announced in September 2022. Submissions are now welcome of original poems with 80-line (two-page) limit per poem. Submissions are only accepted by mail. 

HOW TO SUBMIT: Send a cover letter with all poet information (mailing address, email address, name, phone) and a list of the submitted poems, as well as one copy of each poem with NO poet identification, and a check for the appropriate amount of reading fees to: 

           CSPS Annual Contest Chair

           P.O. Box 4288 Sunland, CA 91041-4288 

CONTEST JUDGE - MARLENE HITT

Marlene Hitt was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (1999- 2001). She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland- Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. Her critically-acclaimed first poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published by Moonrise Press in 2015. Her second collection, Yellow Tree Alone appeared in 2022. In addition to publishing numerous poetry chapbooks, she has authored a non- fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City and two books of stories for children: Grandma's Stories for All People Large and Small and The Discontent of Brother Turnip and Grandfather Tree. Her poems appeared in Psychopoetica (UK), Chupa Rosa Diaries of the Chupa Rosa Writers, Sunland (2001-2003), Glendale College’s Eclipse anthologies, CSPS California Quarterly and Poetry Letter; and poetry anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, 2010; Meditations on Divine Names, 2012; and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology that she co-edited in 2020 with Maja Trochimczyk).

Recently, Hitt was one of 12 poets invited to contribute to Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022). Her work also appears in Sometimes in the Open, a collection of verse by California Poets Laureate, and The Coiled Serpent, anthology of Los Angeles poets, edited by Luis Rodriguez (2016).

Marlene Hitt served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent for many years. Ms. Hitt was the history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club, Woman of the Year by the U.S. Congress, and many congratulatory scrolls by the City and County of Los Angeles, and the State of California. In 2019, Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga presented to Marlene and her husband Lloyd, a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing their support of poetry in the Foothills.