Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition

Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition

Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition

About the Annual Kent County Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition

The Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition was started in 1968 by poet James Allen at the urging of John Hunting, the founder of the Dyer-Ives Foundation, to encourage excellence in writing and to provide recognition for local work of high quality. The annual contest is open to poets ages 5 through adult who reside in or attend school in Kent County.

Submissions are accepted every February, and winners are selected in the spring. Winners selected in different categories have their poems published in Voices, receive a cash award, and participate in the annual Awards Reading Ceremony during Festival of the Arts in June.

Submissions accepted February 1 - 29, 2024.

2024 National Judge

Francesca Bell was born in Spokane, Washington into a family with deep, hardscrabble roots in the Northwest. Her maternal great-grandfather raised his six children, including Bell’s grandmother, on a 160-acre homestead in Plummer, Idaho. On her father’s side, the Norwegian Wikum family, when traced 700 years back, was already renowned for its heavy drinking. The hard living continued in America where the clan was referred to around Coeur d’Alene, Idaho as “the fighting Wikums.”

Bell was raised in Washington and Idaho and settled as an adult in California. She did not complete middle school, high school, or college and holds no degrees. She has worked as a massage therapist, a cleaning lady, a daycare worker, a nanny, a barista, and a server in the kitchen of a retirement home.

Bell’s writing appears in many magazines including ELLE, Los Angeles Review of Books, New Ohio Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle. Her translations appear in Mid-American Review, The Massachusetts Review, New England Review, River Styx, and Waxwing. Her first book, Bright Stain (Red Hen Press, 2019), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. In 2023, Red Hen Press will publish What Small Sound, her second book of poetry, and Whoever Drowned Here, a collection of poems by Max Sessner that she has translated from German. She is translation editor at the Los Angeles Review and the Marin County Poet Laureate.

Divisions and Awards

Elementary School
Grades K – 2
1st Place: $25 & publication
2nd Place: $10 & publication

Grades 3 – 4
1st Place: $25 & publication
2nd Place: $10 & publication

Middle School
Grades 5 – 6
1st Place: $50 & publication
2nd Place: $20 & publication

Grades 7 – 8
1st Place: $50 & publication
2nd Place: $20 & publication

High School
Grades 9 – 10
1st Place: $75 & publication
2nd Place: $25 & publication

Grades 11 – 12
1st Place: $100 & publication
2nd Place: $50 & publication

Undergraduate
1st Place: $100 & publication
2nd Place: $75 & publication
3rd Place: $50 & publication

Adult
1st Place: $150 & publication
2nd Place: $125 & publication
3rd Place: $100 & publication

Voices Publication

Voices is published annually to highlight the winners of the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition.

Questions

If you have questions about the competition, email us or call 616.988.5400.

Eligibility

  • Open to Kent County, MI residents ages 5 and up.
  • Open to students attending classes within Kent County, MI, including at GVSU. 
  • Open to students who are residents of Kent County but attend school elsewhere.
  • Free to enter.
  • One poem per person will be accepted. The poem must be original and unpublished.

Submission Guidelines

  • Submissions accepted February 1-29, 2024.
  • Submit one unpublished poem via our Submittable portal.
  • Note that your name should not appear anywhere on the uploaded document.
  • Poems in languages other than English are accepted for consideration with inclusion of an English translation.
  • Winners will be notified by the beginning of May 2024.

Resources

Sponsors

Special thanks to the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation — Dyer-Ives Foundation Poetry Fund for their support of this program.

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