Guidelines
- Any topic, any form
- 30 lines or fewer, including titles, spaces, stanza breaks
- 1-3 poems per contest
- Poems should be submitted through Submittable
- Chaffin/Kash open only to KSPS Members
- Members may submit to both contests
- Must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant
- Title or number poems
- Do not include your name or any identifying information on the poem(s)
- Entry deadline: June 30, 2021, 11:50 pm EST
Meet the 2021 Contest Judges
2021 Chaffin/Kash Prize Judge
Marianne Worthington
Marianne Worthington is co-founder and poetry editor of Still: The Journal, an online literary magazine publishing literary, visual, and musical artists with ties to Appalachia since 2009. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, CALYX, Cheap Pop, and Grist, among other places. She received the Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council and artist’s grants from Kentucky Foundation for Women. She co-edited Piano in a Sycamore: Writing Lessons from the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop and is author of a poetry chapbook. Her poetry collection is forthcoming from University Press of Kentucky, 2022. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee and lives, writes, and teaches in southeast Kentucky.
2021 Grand Prix Prize Judge
makalani bandele
makalani bandele is an Affrilachian Poet and Cave Canem fellow. He is the author of two full-length collections of poems hellfightin’ (Aquarius Press, 2011) and under the aegis of a winged mind (Autumn House Press, 2020), which was awarded their 2019 Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including: Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Prairie Schooner, Foundry, 32poems, and North American Review. He has also received fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council, Millay Colony, and Vermont Studio Center and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Kentucky.
