Poetry Society of Tennessee wrapped up their 2024-2025 contest year with the final winner announcement at their May membership meeting. We are pleased to present highlights for a year of firsts and full contest slates for poets of virtually all ages as well as a new contest for artists.

Winning art work, first place poems from festival, member, and student contests along with Tennessee Voices contest finalists and other editorial selections will be published in the upcoming edition of Tennessee Voices Anthology, expected to become available in late summer.

68th Annual Poetry Festival Contests

A partnership with MTSU Write and Poetry in the Boro, The 68th Annual Poetry Festival was the first-ever hybrid event for the society and offered diverse workshops for attendees. The event concluded with contest winner announcements and a reading of winning poems.

The festival’s 22 contests received 532 entries and yielded 141 moments of recognition for poets. First place winners and Tennessee Voices finalists will appear in the anthology.

Best of Fest Goes to ….

Best of the Fest is an award presented to the top poem among winning festival poems. Plenary session presenter Christian J. Collier, the guest judge for this special award, selected the Best of Fest winner. KB Ballentine won Best of Fest for her poem “Rest.” Look for “Rest” and other winning poems in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025 this summer.

Get the full festival winners list.

Tennessee Visions Cover Art Contest

The society launched its inaugural cover art contest in the fall of 2024. Winners will appear on the front and back cover of the upcoming anthology edition. Learn more about the contest, winning art, and the artists.

Members-Only Contests

In addition to 11 traditional sponsored contests with monetary prizes, this year the society’s Full Moon Poetry Group sponsored a unique poetry contest for members, where all entrants received feedback from at least two members on the judging panel. First prize winning poems of these 12 contests will appear in the upcoming edition of Tennessee Voices Anthology. Get full results of members-only contests.

Tennessee Collegiate and Student Contests

The society launched its inaugural Tennessee Collegiate Contest open to college students of all levels attending Tennessee-based higher education institutions. They also continued their long-running annual student contests for elementary, middle school and high school students. First place winners will appear in the forthcoming Tennessee Voices Anthology. Get full Tennessee Collegiate Contest results. Get full Student Contest results.