The Ontario Poetry Society - Across The Universe Contest

Open to Everyone

First Prize - $100 Second Prize - $75 Third Prize - $50
Plus 20 Honourable Mention Awards
All cash prizes paid in Canadian funds.
All prize winners receive a certificate
and one copy of the anthology per poem published in the book.

Rules and Guidelines:
Universe poems, which might include the Big Bang, gravity, the sun, stars, space ships,
aliens, comets, the Milky Way, our planet in relation to others, and astronauts / space travel.
Poems may also be about star gazing, visiting other planets, vacationing in outer space, space
junk, astrology, asteroids and outer space discoveries or events like landing on the Moon. Your
work should raise questions, humour, or deep thought, and perhaps a new perspective.

All styles welcome.
There is no limit to the number of submissions.

Blind Judging
Poems to be no longer than 36 lines, with spaces between stanzas counting as lines.
However, poem titles do not count in the line total.
To be submitted on 8 1/2 x 11 letter size paper, on one side of the page only
No author name to appear anywhere on the page, back or front
Preferred fonts are Arial #12 or Times New Roman #12
Poems may be previously published (but not in Verse Afire), as long as the poem(s)
entered have not previously won any contest prize.
A cover page must be included with submission, providing Author's name, complete
mailing address, phone number, and e-mail, along with a vertical list of poem titles or first lines
if the poem is untitled

Entry fee: $10 for up to 3 poems / $5 for each additional poem.
Deadline: Poems to be post-marked on / or before April 30, 2024.
Enclose a #10 s.a.s.e. for the winners' list & gift of a $1 off coupon for another T.O.P.S. contest.

Submissions: Send with entry fee payable to
The Ontario Poetry Society
Attn.: I.B. Iskov, Contest Coordinator
#710 - 65 Spring Garden Ave.
Toronto, Ontario M2N 6H9

Contest Judge: Jeevan Bhagwat