Open to Everyone
First Prize $100
Second Prize $75 Third Prize $50
Plus 2 Judge's Choice Awards $25
Plus 18 Honourable Mention Awards
All cash prizes
paid in Canadian funds
All 23 prize winners receive a fancy certificate
Plus one copy of the anthology per poem published in the book
(i.e.: Should the prize winner have 3 winning poems,
he or she will receive 3 anthologies)
Rules and Guidelines:
Poems to be no longer than 36 lines
Spaces between the stanzas count as lines
Free Verse Style Preferred
There is no limit to the number of poems per submission
Themes wanted on
our world including water such as rain, snow, ponds, lakes, rivers,
oceans, icebergs; poems about wildlife, such as the great and small
mammals, whales,
bears, moose, deer, wolves, coyotes, lynx, skunks, porcupines, beavers,
buffalo, as well
as poems about fish such as salmon, trout and amphibians, such as frogs,
toads, salamanders;
poems about insects, such as honeybees, ants, reptiles such as snakes,
etc., the inter-relationships
of living creatures. No graphic poems about trapping or shooting, no
violent poems unless
portraying those very inter-relationships, no religious poems and no
foul language.
There is no limit to the number of submissions but a
maximum of 3 poems per poet will be allowed in the collection.
Poems may be previously published,
but not have previously won a contest prize.
Blind judging
No author information to be anywhere on the same page as the poem, back
and front.
A separate cover page must be included with author name,
complete mailing address, phone number and e-mail,
along with a vertical list of poem titles (first line if no poem title)
Poems to be in #11 Arial or #11 Times New Roman
Entry fee: One poem
for $5 or 3 poems for $10
Deadline: Poems to be postmarked on/or before September 30, 2020
Enclose a #10 s.a.s.e. for the winners list & receive a $1 coupon
for another T.O.P.S. contest
Send your submission plus entry fee payable to
The Ontario Poetry Society,
#710 - 65 Spring Garden Ave., Toronto, Ont. M2N 6H9
Contest Judge is Rhoda Hassmann, the 2019 First Prize Winner