• Contest is OPEN.
• Open to all CWC members and to non-member residents of the North and South Carolina.
• Contest is for poetry of fewer than 50 lines; haiku excluded.
• Entries must be original and unpublished.  This includes blogs, Facebook, websites and any other digital media.
• Poems must be single-spaced.
• Please follow guidelines in General Manuscript Requirements, Eligibility & Submission Information.
• Multiple entries are NOT allowed. Choose your best poem to submit.
• Entry Fee: CWC Members: $15, Non-members: $20, Undergraduate students: $10
• Prizes: First Place (one will be awarded in both the general and undergraduate categories): $150, Second Place: $75, Third Place: $25
• Prizes will be awarded in April at the CWC general meeting.
• For inquiries or questions, contact Mack Staton, Contest Chair.

Poetry Contest Judge 

Catherine Carter

Catherine Carter lives with her husband near Western Carolina University, where she is a professor in the English Education and professional writing programs. Her most recent collection of poetry is Larvae of the Nearest Stars (LSU Press, 2019); her work has also appeared in Best American Poetry 2009, Orion, Poetry, and Ploughshares, among others.  It has won the North Carolina Literary Review’s 2018 James Applewhite Prize for poetry, the Roanoke-Chowan Award, the Randall Jarrell Award, the Jacar Press annual chapbook contest, and the Still:  The Journal award for poetry. 

Poetry Contest Past Winners

Deane Ritch Lomax Poetry Prize Past Winners

Anthony Abbott Poetry Competition Past Winners