Poetry Competition

Our second quarterly poetry competition (Winter 2026) will accept submissions until November 30th, 2026.  The winner will be notified via email in December 2026 and receive a $50 prize, a feature on our website, as well as publication and a special mention in Religion of Love’s Winter 2026 issue.

All poems submitted to the competition will automatically be considered for publication in Religion of Love’s first digital issue (December 2026).  If selected, authors will be notified by November 2026, and their $2 contest entry fee will be refunded.

Contest prize:

$50 for quarterly contest winners.

Entry fee:

$2 entry fee per submission (up to 3 poems per submission).  You may submit multiple times to the same contest, as long as you submit different poems in each and pay the entry fee for each submission (up to five submissions — i.e, 15 poems).  Contest winners and those whose works are selected for publication in Religion of Love's first digital issue will be reimbursed their $2 entry fee.  

Fee waiver:

If you would like to request a fee waiver for any reason, please indicate so in the submission form and continue to submit.  The entry fee is not meant to be a barrier; it merely allows us to sustain operations, fund the contest prize, and hopefully pay issue contributors in the future!

Submission guidelines:

Submissions are rolling, and poems will be considered within the period for which they are submitted (i.e., all poems submitted before March 31st, 2026 will be considered in the Spring 2026 competition; all poems submitted after March 31st and before June 30th, 2026 will be considered in the Fall 2026 competition).  Original pieces are strongly preferred for the contest, though translations will certainly be considered for issue publication.  Work must be primarily human-generated (ideally 100%, though rare exceptions for artistic effect apply; please be transparent in the "AI Use" section of the submission form).

Submission instructions:

Please upload each submission using the form below as a double-spaced, 12-point font Word or PDF document, including a brief author bio of <50 words.

$2 entry fees should be submitted via Stripe, our secure payment processing platform, by the contest deadline (March 31st, 2026); submissions will not be considered for the contest unless the entry fee is paid.

Past Winners:

Spring 2026: Bruce Spang, "So It Is."

Bruce Spang, former Poet Laureate of Portland, is the author of two novels, The River Crossed (2005) and The Deception of the Thrush (2014). He has published five books of poems, including Twist (2025) and All You’ll Derive: A Caregiver’s Journey (2019). He has a new book of letters, Dear Teen, Dear Poet: Coming of Age in Letters (2026), and a memoir, No Way Back: A Young Man’s Search for Home (2026). He teaches at the Great Smokies Writing Program. He lives in Candler, NC, with his husband, Myles Rightmire, and their two dogs.

Read "So It Is" in Issue #1!