— Kasia Gawlak

OVERALL WINNER
Judge’s Citation: Gavin Bradley’s “Brine” contains the briny and “singing” language of poetry. The poem is emotive, the metaphors fresh. “Brine was his great leveller,” the poet notes, and clarity rings in this insight. Here is a poem to return to again and again, yielding more with every pass.
– Doyali Islam, author of heft

YOUTH WINNER
Judge’s Citation: Miss Anonymous’ “tacenda” impresses me with its emotional integrity and intensity. An agile imagination is at work here, and the imagery, diction, and lineation are, to borrow from the poem’s own language, “cohesive and / beautiful”.
– Doyali Islam, author of heft

The Festival encourages all poets to keep writing, and looks forward to future engagement opportunities.

— Kasia Gawlak

To learn more about this work, please visit our Equity Initiatives page.

— Kasia Gawlak

— Kasia Gawlak

The Edmonton Poetry Festival is proud to present our first-ever PoFest Poetry Prize judged by Griffin Poetry Prize Finalist Doyali Islam. The PoFest Poetry Prize will award 2 prizes this year in celebration of our 15th anniversary: $1000.00 to one winning poem and $500.00 to one youth poem. The submission fee for this contest is $10.00 (plus applicable fees), and is payable on Eventbrite at the time of submission.

Entries will be accepted until June 30th at 11:59 PM MST and are open to poets from all around the world. We will accept blind entries in easy-to-read documents (such as PDF or Word) up to three pages. Please only submit ONE entry. Please submit your entry via our submission form on Google Forms.

There will be a limited number of community entries where we will waive the submission fee. If you require a fee waiver, please e-mail nisha@edmontonpoetryfestival.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible. If you are seeing this close to the deadline, please submit first and send a short e-mail requesting a waiver after.

If you have any questions, please e-mail info@edmontonpoetryfestival.com.

— Kasia Gawlak

You can read the winning poems, as well as poems on the shortlist, in the Poetry Moves on Transit section.

— Kasia Gawlak

We have monitored the situation closely over the last several weeks, and while it breaks our hearts to make this announcement, the safety of both our guests and performers alike must be our top priority at this time.

Edmonton’s art scene is crucial to the well-being of our city. This vibrant and cherished community exists because of the support we enjoy from all who perform, attend, volunteer with, and donate to events like our festival, and we are excited to return as soon as possible.

For more details as the situation develops, keep an eye on our social media at Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram.

The Edmonton Poetry Festival is an annual celebration of poetry and spoken word in Edmonton and Alberta. The festival presents a range of poetic styles and artists: from slam to traditional verse; from internationally recognized poets to local stars.

For more information please contact:

Nisha Patel
City of Edmonton Poet Laureate
Executive Director
nisha@edmontonpoetryfestival.com

Sarah Dharshi & Tim Hanson
Marketing and Communication Coordinators
info@edmontonpoetryfestival.com

— Kasia Gawlak

The contest is open to all residents of the Edmonton region. Each round, four poems chosen by a blind jury get to circulate on 800 posters riding major bus and LRT routes throughout our city for 8-12 weeks! We’ve learned that each poem is read some two million times—that’s some serious reach! Winners also receive a $100 honorarium, as well as a copy of the bus poster. As an extra flourish, we’re timing it all to coincide with our festival!

Seeing as we’ve just split open a brand new decade, we don’t want to limit which direction your poems go off adventuring—this is an open call.

Poems have to be short enough to feature on the bus posters: Maximum 10 lines (excluding the title and line break, but including stanza breaks), and no more than 10 words per line.

DEADLINE: Friday, March 6th, 2020 at 11:59pm. Please email up to three poetry submissions to tomas@edmontonpoetryfestival.com

Happy writing!

— Kasia Gawlak

Please submit a one to two page proposal to nisha@edmontonpoetryfestival.com by January 10th with the following information:

• Event description and title
• Proposed artists or partners
• Host organization
• Venue

Please email nisha@edmontonpoetryfestival.com if you have any questions.

— Kasia Gawlak

The winners of the fall 2019 round of Poetry Moves on Transit are Lea Storry, Darian Rose Selander, Jo-Ann Godfrey, and Zach Polis! Congratulations to them and a big thanks to all poets who submitted their work. This round, we received 135 poems from 73 people. That means 135 separate instances of people permitting themselves the vulnerability to share, very often on beautiful and poignant terms, their lived experiences as people living with us, here, at this time.

Be sure to check out the winning poems, as well as those chosen for the shortlist!

— Michael Gravel