Poetry Contests
Open for EntriesT.O.P.S. runs many contests throughout the year both for its members and for poets at large. Check out the links below for the details of each contest.
| Contest Name | Deadline | Max Lines | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ellen S. Jaffe Humanist Award for Poetry 2026 Open to everyone in Canada and the U.S.A. |
March 15 | Suite of 10 poems, 32 Lines or less, each | Details |
| The Pentados Series Poetry Contest 2026 Open to all Canadian citizens. |
April 30 | Manuscripts of 15 pages of poetry accepted. Each page has a maximum of 36 lines. | Details |
| The Ultra Short Poem Competition 2026 Open to Canadians and permanent residents of Canada only |
July 31 | Poems are to be no longer than 8 lines and no more than 8 words on a line. | Details |
| The Once Upon My Time Contest 2026 Members Only |
August 31 | Submit up to 5 poems no longer than 28 lines each. | Details |
| The Surrealistic Poetry Competition 2026 Open to everyone living in Canada |
October 31 | 32 Lines or less | Details |
| The Long Poem Competition Open to Everyone |
December 25 | 60-100 Lines | Details |
| The Entitled Titles Poetry Competition Open to everyone living in Canada |
January 31, 2027 | 32 Lines | CLOSED |
Anthologies
Open for Submissions| Title | Deadline | Max Lines | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wild Things: A Weird, Wonderful, Whimsical Canadian Poetry Anthology Members Only |
March 15 | All members of The Ontario Poetry Society are invited to participate in our annual anthology of poetry. | Details |
General Contest Rules
When a Poetry Contest Prize Really is a Poetry Contest Prize by: I.B. Iskov
Several of the contests sponsored by The Ontario Poetry Society incorporate the rule:
"Poems may be previously published, but no contest winning prize poems are allowed".
It is easy to identify First, Second, Third place poem as prize winning, but what about secondary
prizes including Honourable Mention Awards, Judge's Choice Awards, and Runner Up Awards.Recently the Executive got together to make this decision.
Here are our conclusions about secondary prizes:
- If a poem's title and author name are announced on a web site, and the poet has not received an award certificate, cash or had the poem published anywhere, then the author of the poem is free to change the title of the poem and re-enter it into another contest.
- If the poem has won publication in a book, magazine, on-line or in a literary journal and has not received an award certificate or any cash, then the poem is only previously published and may be re-entered into another contest.
- However, if the author of the poem with the secondary prize has received an award certificate and had the poem published in a book, journal, magazine or on-line, even without a cash prize, this poem is still a prize winning poem. If you check T.O.P.S. poetry contests, most Honourable Mention Award winning poems do have a cash prize attached, or a prize of a free book with their poem published inside it. All of these poetry contest award winning poems receive an award certificate, unless they are runner up prizes and are therefore considered previously published only.
- Kindly remember, that if your poem has won a secondary prize in a previous contest held by The Ontario Poetry Society, and is eligible to be re-entered into another contest because the poem did not receive an award certificate, the Executive recommends you do not enter it into another T.O.P.S. poetry contest, since the judge may have read the poem in the publication. Many of our judges are members of The Ontario Poetry Society.