Submissions are invited for Fall 2023 Poetry Competition by Verily Magazine. The last date of submission is October 30, 2023.

About Verily Magazine

Verily magazine is the first no-photoshop women’s magazine.

Competition Details

Poetry is a unique art form, enabling writers to reach beyond the ordinary limitations of prose to paint pictures with words in their readers’ imaginations. It is a way of using words to show rather than to tell in a way that can offer healing and solace to both the writer as well as the reader. 

In her book A Poetry Handbook, beloved American poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.” At Verily, they’ve always appreciated poetry’s way of deepening our empathy and attentiveness to the world, and so it is with great excitement that they’re sharing with you the details of our inaugural poetry competition this Fall.

Verily invite readers to to write and submit your original poetry on the theme of “home” (read on for the full rules of entry, below). “Home” will be the theme of our upcoming Winter issue, and we think it makes a rich poetry prompt; whether positive, negative, or complex, the idea of “home” evokes strong emotions in all of us. Whether you choose to write about your childhood home, a sense of coming home to yourself in adulthood, or to empathize with the plight of the homeless or disenfranchised members of the communities, the direction you take this prompt in is completely up to you.

Guidelines

• Work must be entirely your own and original, not published online or in any other print publication.
• You may interpret the theme of “home” as loosely or closely as you like. Poems may be in any length or style, up to a maximum of 40 lines long.
• This competition is free of charge to enter, and we are open to entries from anywhere in the world, but entries must be at least mostly in English (i.e. including a line or word here or there in another language is fine).

Prizes

First Prize: $300 and publication in the Winter 2023-2024 issue of Verily magazine, plus a copy of the Winter issue in print. Your poem will be edited by a professional poetry editor, with feedback from the editor and poetry judging team.

Runner Up Prize: $150 and publication in the Winter 2023-2024 issue of Verily magazine, plus a copy of the Winter issue in print. Your poem will be edited by a professional poetry editor, with feedback from the editor and poetry judging team.

How to Submit?

Please send your submission in a Word document in a simple font (preferably Arial, size 11) attached to an email to sophie[at]verilymag[dot]com with the subject line marked: POETRY 2023: HOME.

Submission Deadline

The last date of submission is October 30, 2023.

Contact

Email: sophie[at]verilymag[dot]com

Click here to view the official notification of Fall 2023 Poetry Competition by Verily Magazine.