Enter the October Project Poetry Contest, launched in 2019 by award-winning poet/lyricist Julie Flanders in collaboration with composer Emil Adler and vocalist Marina Belica of October Project Music to encourage the art of poetry.
Submit up to three poems.
FIRST POEM FREE!
Additional Poems (max. 2) are $10 ea.
Submissions open April 1 – April 30, 2026
SAVE THE DATE: Winners announced May 24, 2026
Enter the Poetry Contest Here!
Contest opens April 1 (12:01 AM EST), and closes April 30 (11:59 PM EST)
Please send your poem(s) as Word files. Illustrated poems may be uploaded as a PDF. View Official Rules.
The Judges
Award-winning theater and cabaret songwriter. President of the Board at New York’s Urban Stages, creator of the Harvard-Yale Cantata, 2-time Jeopardy champion, and judge for the October Project Poetry Contest from inception. Visit tomtocesongwriter.com
Inaugural Poet for President Barack Obama and National Humanities Medal recipient, award-winning poet Richard Blanco is the author of several acclaimed collections of poetry. A Woodrow Wilson fellow, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. Visit richard-blanco.com
Published Nigerian poet, winner of Blossom Poetry Contest (2026), finalist for th eEvaristo Prize for African Poetry (2025), winner of Oxford University’s After the End Poetry Contest (2024) and the Hudson Review's inaugural Frederick Morgan Poetry Prize (2023) Debut poetry collection EXILED (Red Bird, 2025).
Inspired by “forgotten corners of history that weave through to contemporary times,”Australian Kirsty Manning is the bestselling author of seven historical novels published in Australia and New Zealand, North America, UK, South Africa. Her newest book, Murder in Paris, is due this July.
Director of Choral & Vocal Activities at Seton Hill University, conductor, poet and composer Dr. Mark A. Boyle has conducted choral festivals throughout the country, served the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) for over two decades, and had his poetry set by several composers. He is also Director of Music Ministries at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Allison Park, PA. Visit markaboyle.com
October Project
Julie Flanders, Emil Adler and Marina Belica of American Prize, Telly and Anthem Award-winning October Project are genre-defying recording artists, producers and musical activists who collaborate in the creation of musical recordings and events. Powered by Flanders’ words, Adler’s music, and the group’s trademark harmonies, their earlier work with SONY/Epic and subsequent recordings have been enjoyed by millions on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and YouTube, including their most recent albums, The Ghost of Childhood (2024) and The Book of Rounds: A Cappella (2025). Their recordings have appeared on the Grammy ballot nine times, with their choral works performed by over 11,000 singers around the world and works by Flanders & Venezuelan composer Carlos Cordero performed at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Bridging the worlds of pop, classical, a cappella and choral, Flanders, Adler & Belica continue to innovate the landscape of independent music.
Past Winners
GRAND PRIZE POETS
2025 - Sam Aureli, “A Soft Unfolding”
2024 - Lisken Van Pelt Dus, "Your Arms My Fountain"
2023 - Brandon McQuade, "Bengal Tigers"
2022 - Fareh Malik, "Aftershocks"
2021 - Bobby Myers, "She Talks of Losing Her Hair"
2020 - Lindsay Rockwell, "The Silence After a Poem is Read"
2019 - Peter Gordon, "To My Unborn Boy"
2nd PLACE POETS
2025 - Elizabeth Johnston, “To All Our College Boyfriends, Who Ought to Know”
2024 - Chiwenite Onyekwelu, "Coming Clean"
2023 - Jennifer Blackledge, "Peripheral Vision"
2022 - Marianne Forman, "Estate Sale" and "I Cannot Tell Whether You Come From the Shadows"
2021 - Jo Schaper, "I Met Him High in the Santa Rosas"
2020 - Melissa Simonds, "When I Remember the time we spent at Lac en Coeur"
2019 - Victor Azotea, "Morrow"
2019 - Stephen Aechternacht, "The Agency of Our Hearts (for Claudia)"
3rd PLACE POETS
2025 - Dean Gessie, “on the consolation of elegy”; Diyora Kabilova, “Inheritance”; Katie Ruffing, “Let the Line End Here”
Anne Marie Wells, “Abecedarian In Front of the Bathroom Mirror”
2024 – William Doreski, "Touching the Moon"
2023 – Alexandra Risley Schroeder, "Cartwheel Momentum in the Neighborhood"
2022 – Andrew MacPhail, "Bonne Chance"
2021 – Katie Thorp, "The Fireman"
2020 – Kate Horowitz, "A Short and Easy Method of Prayer"
BEST ILLUSTRATED POEM
2025 - Marc Palmer, “A Winter’s Tale”
2024 – Marc Palmer, "Four Tales of Night"
2023 – Marc Palmer, "Autumn Evening"
2022 – Marc Palmer, "Fireflies"
BEST TEEN POET
2025 - Kelly Zhang, “Within Blinks”
2024 – Krishti Khandelwal, "In the Sea of My Own Head"
2023 – Krishti Khandelwal, "Conscious Mortals"
2022 – Krishti Khandelwal, "Home in the Realm of Chaos", Kate Blaicher, "I Am"
BEST COLLEGIATE POET
2025 - Maisie Bilston, “Love Poem: Danaë Unsatisfied”
2023 – Katelyn Weldom, "A Few Too Many Funerals"
HONORABLE MENTION POETS
2025 - Joshua Effiong, “Experimental Study on the Anti-Disintegration Mechanism of Self”; Alexandra LeRossignol, “Morpheus”; Nancy Smiler Levinson, “Hurry Up Please It’s Time”; Michael Emerald Oladosu, “I Deserve it All”; Azadeh Feridoun Pour, “From Ur-Mia to Barossa”
2024 – Zimuzo Onah, "Blue Profundity"; Virginia Boudreau, "For a Deer, Dreaming"; Mara Adamitz Scrupe, "Everything you ever wanted to know about the past lives of geraniums"; Desmond Davies, "The Heron in the Snow"; David T. Budd, "Mapping My Desires"
2023 – Mara Adamitz Scrupe, "Swiadek"; Anthony Watkins, "Beyond That Age"; John Garcia, "Angelic Listener"; Amy Gordon, "Leaf Art"; Desmond Davies, "Caught in the Pine-Tops"
2022 – Alana Keener, "Again"; Roberta Schultz, "The Healing Question"; Linda Bonavita, "The Song of Our Tribe"; Julia Fulton, "Reunion"; Jeffrey Manning, "Raising 5 Kids and My Wife Does Not Like Poetry"
2021 – Robert Amenta, "A Leaf's Fall"; Brandon McQuade, "Fledgling"; Ivory Bennett, "Dear Daca"; Gina Forberg, "Flying Into the Fire"; Isaac Keener, "Haze"; Michelle Merges Martens, "Summer Times & Summer Places"; Jeffrey Manning, "The Yellow House"
2020 – Jeffrey Manning, "Just One More Time"; Bobby Myers, "How You Got Here"; Nooshin Ghanbari, "Vincent"; Chris Elliot, "Estuary"; Stan Sujka, "An Affair with a Rainbow"
Julie Flanders
With deceptively simple words, Flanders guides readers through the mysteries of the familiar to a deeper understanding of life and love, death and loss, miracles of perception, and the magic of the ordinary. Deeply satisfying, her poems are easily entered for a first read and richly reward repetition.
Flanders is an Amazon #1 Best-seller in Poetry for each of her three collections, Watermarked, Shadow Breathing and Joyride. Following upon the success of her animated poem Doubts (2018), an Official Selection at 29 film festivals, she won a 2024 Bronze Telly in writing for an experimental short of her poem The Big Sadness.
For the last 11 years, Flanders has posted a new original poem on social media each day in April during National Poetry Month and co-founded the international poetry contest that has engaged poets and poems from all over the world. She is also the originator of the hashtag #haikuTuesday, creating and encouraging posts of haikus every Tuesday, year round, contributing an archive of hundreds of poems and haikus online ever since.
Flanders is also a sought-after Creative Consultant with expertise in leadership, trance states and neuro-linguistics. Her clients include world-changers from the fields of culture, technology, thought authorship and the arts.
Julie Flanders Poetry on YouTube
