Rattle Poetry Prize
Deadline: July 15, 2020 (11:59pm Pacific Time for online entries)
The annual Rattle Poetry Prize is celebrating its 15th year by increasing the 1st prize to $15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will be published in the winter issue of the magazine.
With the winners judged in a blind review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection, an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and a runner-up Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—the Rattle Poetry Prize aims to be one of the most writer-friendly and popular poetry contests around.
We accept entries online and by mail. See Rattle's website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the past winners.
Please enjoy this RPP finalist poem by Wendy Videlock, published in Rattle #42, Winter 2013:
OF YOU
You've been the wolf, you've been the bear,
you were the grass when I was air,
the hush of the lake, eyes and lips,
a shyness at my fingertips,a motion that knew when to slow,
the forest where I always go;and now you are the windowsill
I rest my elbows on until
the night grows dark and I can't see
these silhouettes of you and me.
