The Kingfisher Poetry Prize Is Now Open!

Poets, Pick Up Your Pens!

To celebrate our tenth anniversary, we’re adding a fifth contest for 2023: The Kingfisher Poetry Prize! And we are delighted to welcome Jude Neale, joining us as final judge, to the Pulp Lit poetry party.

Though small(ish) in size, the kingfisher is mighty in name and attack. And so, to honour its namesake, this contest is for powerful poems of up to 20 lines. Send us your small sparkling pieces that flash and glimmer from the depths!

Enter before 15 October and pay the earlybird entry fee of just $10.

The Details

Contest opens: 1 October 2023
Deadline:  15 November 2023
Winner notified: 15 December 2023
Winners published in: Issue 42, Spring 2024
First Prize: $300
Runners up (2): $50 each

All entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription to Pulp Literature.

Entry fee: $15 
Earlybird fee (before 15 Oct): $10 

And remember, this contest is for previously unpublished poems of up to 20 lines in length.

For all the details, and to enter, visit the contest page!

---

Meet Kingfisher Judge, Jude Neale!

Jude Neale is a master educator, Canadian poet, vocalist, spoken word performer, workshop facilitator, and mentor. As well, she has has written twelve collections of poetry. She is a beloved mother, grandmother, and wife.

At eight years old, Jude had her first publication, when she won a CBC youth competition on travel. Fast forward a few years and now, coming in the fall, is her latest book, Water Forgets Its Own Name (Ekstasis Editions), a collaboration with the visual artist Nicholas Jennings.

Jude’s book A Quiet Coming of Light: A Poetic Memoir (Leaf) was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, a recognition of Canadian women poets. Her manuscript, Splendid in Its Silence, won publication in the UK. Her poem, ‘Blue Bowl’, was a finalist for the prestigious Irish Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Award. ‘Emptiness in the Garden’, selected by Britain’s Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, rode the buses in the Channel Islands for a year.

Drawing on her musical background, Jude collaborated with violist, composer, and visionary, Thomas RL Beckman, to write a poetic prose narrative for the three-movement orchestrated suite, The St. Roch Suite, performed live by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.

We were delighted to publish two of Jude’s poems: ‘About Light’ in Pulp Literature Issue 13, and ‘Blaze of the Universe’ in Issue 37. Visit her at judeneale.ca.