POETRY CONTEST

The Clackamas Arts Alliance’s Literary Arts Committee is excited to announce its 3rd Annual Writing Contest. This year we are looking for all POETRY submissions!

OPENING DATE: MARCH 10, 2025
CLOSING DATE: APRIL 7, 2025, 11:59 PM PST

2025 Poetry Contest Theme

This theme’s inspiration recognizes that Clackamas County  has been home to diverse caretakers and inhabitants for millennia. As we look to the future, how might we celebrate those who came before and those who are taking us to what lies ahead. 

Consider in your poem submission how the geography of our diverse county has shaped our cities and their people. Consider the intersection of people of past and present between the rivers and the mountains and the trees.

  • There will be one First Place winner and one or more Runner Up winners. First Place winners will receive a cash prize of $250. Runner Up winners will receive a cash prize of $100. The Winners will be announced on or near May 15, 2025.

  • The winners will be invited to read their entries at the Milwaukie Poetry Series, First Friday reading on June 6, 2025, at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, 2036 SE Jefferson St. Milwaukie, OR 97222, 6:30 – 8 PM.

  • Writers must work or live in Clackamas County, Oregon and be at least 18 years of age at the time of submission. Please download and review the ELIGIBILITY AND CONTEST RULES below. 
APPLY HERE BY APRIL 7
CONTEST GUIDELINES
INTERESTED IN SPONSORING?

Finalist Entries will be judged by Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita

Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita, has eight full-length books of poetry,
most recently My Kindred from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. Her poems have appeared in
many journals and anthologies, including Poetry, The Birmingham Review, Prairie
Schooner, Orion, Catamaran, Wilderness Magazine, the Internet’s Poetry Daily, and
POETRY IN MOTION, which put poems on Portland, Oregon busses and light rail cars.

A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she’s the recipient of the Holbrook
Award from Oregon Literary Arts, and from Willamette Writers both a Distinguished
Northwest Writer Award and a Legacy Award.