Word Press publishes and distributes the best new poetry and criticism through several annual contests and other channels. Our goal is to serve the art of poetry by bringing the voices of both emerging and established poets to the reading public. On our website, you can learn more about our annual contests, place an order for books, and contact us. Thanks for helping us to keep alive the art of poetry!
When There Is No Shore by Vivian Shipley, the winner of the 2002 Word Press Poetry Prize, is now available. Ranging across a variety of subjects, her new poems engage in the common mission of delving deeply beneath the surface and trying to navigate a world with no landscapes, no shore, as a guide. Dana Gioia praises Shipley's work: "Vivian Shipley's poetry is distinguished by how much of life and life's joyous energy it manages to convey. Alternately exhilarating and tender, her voice is expansive, inclusive and arresting. Ranging from Appalachian Kentucky to Soviet Russia, she does not merely capture the memorable particulars of the landscape, but always finds a genuine human story to tell."
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In addition, the following runners-up from the 2002 contest are now available:
And, later this fall:
The 2003 Word Press Poetry Prize contest has a December 1, 2002 deadine.
The deadline for our July contests for a first book, chapbook, and individual poem has passed, and we are currently reviewing submissions; thanks to all who entered. Our next contest is the Word Press Poetry Prize with a December 1 deadline.