Guidelines:

• The KSPS Grand Prix Poetry Contest is open to any US poet writing in English, age 18+
• Poems may be any topic, any form 
• Each poem must be 30 lines or fewer, including titles, spaces, and stanza breaks
• 1-3 poems per submission. Poems must be in one document; only one poem per page.
• $10 submission fee for each entry (1-3 poems)
• KSPS members may submit to both the Grand Prix and the Chaffin/Kash contests (separate entry fees)
• Poems must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant; no AI submissions
• Each poem must be titled or numbered
• Do not include your name or any identifying information on the poem(s)
• Please withdraw poems via Submittable if they are published elsewhere before the contest deadline. Use the "Withdraw" function or the "Message" function  to withdraw single poems from a submission packet.
• Deadline is July 31, 2025, 11:59 pm ET
• Winners are announced in September and are invited to read at the KSPS annual conference October 2025 (virtual)
• Winners are published in the KSPS literary journal Pegasus

Prizes:

• 1st Prize: $100
• 2nd Prize: $50
• 3rd Prize: $25

Judge: Bernard Clay

About: The Kentucky State Poetry Society seeks to inspire, encourage, and develop Kentucky’s poets through a wide variety of workshops, lectures, and publishing opportunities. The Kentucky State Poetry Society publishes the biannual literary journal Pegasus, offers a student and adult poetry contests, and hosts an annual conference. 

Guidelines:

• The KSPS Chaffin/Kash Contest is open only to members of the Kentucky State Poetry Society (see KSPS website for membership information)
• Poems may be any topic, any form 
• Each poem must be 30 lines or fewer, including titles, spaces, and stanza breaks
• 1-3 poems per submission. Poems must be in one document; only one poem per page
• $10 submission fee for each entry (1-3 poems)
• KSPS members may submit to both contests (separate entry fees)
• Poems must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant; no AI submissions
• Poems must be titled or numbered
• Do not include your name or any identifying information on the poem(s)
• Please withdraw poems via Submittable if they are published elsewhere before the contest deadline. Use the "Withdraw" function or the "Message" function to withdraw single poems from a submission packet.
• Deadline is July 31, 2025, 11:59 pm ET
• Winners are announced in September and are invited to read at the KSPS annual conference October, 2025. (virtual)
• Winners are published in the KSPS literary journal Pegasus

Prizes:

• 1st Prize: $100
• 2nd Prize: $50
• 3rd Prize: $25

Judge: Elaine Fowler Palencia

About: The Kentucky State Poetry Society seeks to inspire, encourage, and develop Kentucky’s poets through a wide variety of workshops, lectures, and publishing opportunities. The Kentucky State Poetry Society publishes the biannual literary journal Pegasus, offers a student and adult poetry contest, and hosts an annual conference. 

Submission Guidelines 

Yearling publishes unsolicited poetry, and poetry from our community of working writers, once a year in December. 

• Submissions are open year round and each submission receives feedback from our editors. 
• Yearling encourages simultaneous submissions for previously unpublished work. We do not consider sharing your poem on a blog, social media account, or online group as published. 
• If your work is accepted by another online or print publisher, journal, or magazine please withdraw your submission through Submittable.
• If you are withdrawing one or more poems from a group in a submission, you do not have to withdraw the entire submission, rather, notify us in a note through Submittable. 
• Contributors will receive 1 copy of the journal upon publication. We hope to be able to pay poets by the end of the third year of publication. 

Poems 

The poems that move us most are the poems that make us forget that we are reading a poem. We believe any style, tone, form, subject matter has that potential. At this time we print in text only in Yearling. 

For free feedback, please send us 1 poem at a time. If you’d like to send us more poems, we charge a fee to pay the editors who are providing feedback. It’s $10 to submit 3 poems. If you send multiple poems without paying, we will read the first one. Due to the volume of poems we receive, we ask that you only do a submission for free feedback once during a three month time frame.

The working poet is of particular importance to us. We define a working poet as a poet who doesn’t make their living from writing or the teaching of writing. Each issue will include 20 poets from our community of working writers and 20 poets from outside of that community, including those who happen to make their living from writing and teaching writing. 

If you are interested in joining our community, check us out here!

Response Time 

Yearling’s readers and editors are shooting for the quickest possible response time. Since we provide feedback to every submission, we cannot say for certain how long this will take. Poems accepted for publication do not receive feedback and acceptance letters will be sent out by Oct 1 of the year of submission.  

Feedback 

Aside from a chance to be published, Yearling provides poets who do not have access to a workshop or a community the opportunity to get feedback on their work. Please do not submit to us unless you are comfortable hearing constructive feedback on your work.  We value the time and energy you put into your work. Please be aware that we do not participate in an ongoing dialogue about a poem, but you are welcome to resubmit a piece as many times as you would like, as long as it is once within a three-month time frame.

Rights and Rules 

We require First Rights (the first publisher to publish these poems publicly). All rights revert to the authors upon publication. We also require Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights, so that we can share your poem through our digital platforms.

We welcome submissions from international authors but are unable to offer free shipping for copies heading outside of the domestic United States at this time.  

Our Team 

Managing Editor: Manny Grimaldi

Manny is the father of two genius level, gorgeous children, and two bird-brained, feathery-yellow, seed-pecking bipeds. He is neurodivergent, writes nearly every day to maintain, and works as Yearling’s Managing Editor since day one in 2021.  He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. He is published or pending in online and print magazines such as Club Plum, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Crossroads Literary Magazine, Drinkers Only, Disturb the Universe, Moss Puppy Magazine, Keeping the Flame Alive, Kentucky State Poetry Society’s Pegasus, and anthologies for the Lexington Poetry Month events for five calendar years. Manny enjoys  poetry readings,  joined with an immense, motley crew at Ron Whitehead’s Last Insomniacathon in Louisville, July 2024. He was recently a finalist for the Kentucky State Poetry Society’s Chaffin/Kash Prize for 2024.  Manny gives much thanks to his respected teachers.

Editor: Jon Thrower

Jon has a long history in underground publishing beginning with ephemeral zine culture dating back to the late 1980s with the zine, No Watches, No Clocks, No Calendars. He traveled extensively around the US as a drummer and along the way participated in zine-making, publishing, and distribution activities from San Francisco to NYC but has never set foot in North Dakota or Vermont. He has worked as an editor for small press publishing outlets including Ligature, Prescription Strength Poetry, The Legendary, Girls with Insurance, Univocal Publishing, and the special interest group Handcrafted Rhetorics. His editing work spans the modal landscape from poetry and fiction to research, contemporary essays, and critical theory. In addition to his editorial role at Workhorse, focusing on The Yearling and LexPoMo, he is the editor of Pegasus, the journal of the Kentucky State Poetry Society. He is a writer, artist, musician, educator, and serious cook, currently doing the dishes in Lexington, Kentucky where he lives with Karen, Merdle, and a 1965 Ludwig Club Date drum kit in Champagne Sparkle.

Editor: Arwen Careaga: 

Arwen grew up in Martin County, Kentucky and now lives in Lexington. As a mother, business owner, and published poet, she brings a unique blend of creativity and organization to her role at Workhorse. Arwen believes in the power of the written word, of memory, and of story in shaping and sharing the human experience. With a deep appreciation for clarity and communication, Arwen appreciates the opportunity to encourage writers in expressing themselves, both to others and for the sake of expression itself. 

Owner/Editor: Christopher McCurry 

Christopher  grew up right outside of Lexington, Kentucky in the small town of Paris. In the seventh grade he entered one of his poems in a contest and won a medal. He's since lost the medal but still remembers the poem. His poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and featured on NPR's On Point as a Best Book of 2016 for his chapbook of marriage sonnets Nearly Perfect Photograph.  His first full-length collection, Open Burning, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer award. A graduate of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College and a high school English teacher, he spends his time playing board games, skateboarding, and going on adventures with his daughter Abra and his wife Meredith. In 2015, Christopher co-founded Workhorse, a publishing company and community for working writers. He believes everyone should write poems and that everyone can. You can find him online at workhorsewriters.com.