1st Place
$150
Serve as Judge for 2027 HeartWood Poetry Prize
2nd & 3rd
$50
2026 CONTEST JUDGED BY
2025 HeartWood Poetry Prize Winner
Elizabeth Rae Bullmer
Elizabeth Rae Bullmer started writing at seven-years-old. Bullmer’s work appears in numerous journals including Cloudbank, Anacapa Review, The Awakenings Review and two chapbooks, Rhubarb Pie Without Berries and Skipping Stones on the River Styx. Bullmer is the 2025 winner of the Heartwood Poetry Prize, Best of the Net nominee, workshop facilitator, licensed massage/sound therapist, and mother of two phenomenal humans, living with three fantastic felines in Kalamazoo. Learn more on her website or follow her on Facebook.
CONTEST INFORMATION
Submission Period: June 13 — July 11, 2026.
All submissions through Submittable with a $5 reading fee.
Poets may submit up to 3 previously unpublished poems, 5 pages maximum.
Cover letter should include a third-person biography of approximately 75 words.
Submission file should not include your name or any other identifying information.
Previous first prize winners (including HeartWood’s former Broadside Contest) are not eligible, nor are associates, friends, or students of the judge.
Current or past employees, current or past students, and alumni of the MFA program at WVWC are not eligible.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere by sending us a note through Submittable.
Currently limited to US residents only.