Submissions open for Third Annual Paul Tucker Poetry Prize

Entries are being accepted for the Third Annual Paul Tucker Poetry Prize, to be awarded during this year's Arts & The Park celebration. The first place winner will be awarded $1,000 cash.

To be eligible, the poem must be unpublished and submitted by the author who is either currently a resident of Arkansas or has been in the past. Any style of poem is welcome, but it must be 30 lines or less with Arkansas as its theme. It will be judged by the Hot Springs chapter of the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas. The winning poem will get $1,000, second place $400 and third place $200.

The contest is named after the late Dr. Paul Tucker, a Hot Springs neurologist who was a poet and patron of the arts, particularly poetry. He died in September after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. In the 1990s, Tucker helped to fund poetry festivals that brought such noted poets as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove and Miller Williams to the Spa City. He was also at the first Wednesday Night Poetry reading in Hot Springs on Feb. 1, 1989.

Since then, he made sure there was an open mic poetry reading somewhere in downtown Hot Springs every Wednesday night. WNP is recognized as America's longest running weekly poetry reading. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave., on Wednesdays.

To enter the Paul Tucker Poetry Prize send one or two poems, without the author's name on them, with a cover sheet that includes the names of the poems, author's name, address, phone number and email address.

To submit by email attach the poems in separate Word documents and include the cover sheet information in the body of the email. Send to [email protected]. Email entrees must be received by midnight April 15, 2018.

Entrees will also be accepted by mail. Send to John Crawford, 116 Patton St., Hot Springs, AR 71913. Mailed submissions must be postmarked by midnight April 14, 2018. For more information email [email protected].

Authors will retain all rights but winners will grant first-time publication rights to the sponsors of the contest.

The Paul Tucker Poetry Prize is funded by The Poets Roundtable of Hot Springs, Wednesday Night Poetry, Dennis Magee, John Crawford, Maxwell Blade and Bud Kenny. It is an official event of the Arts & The Park celebration, a collaborative arts festival sponsored by the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance.

Visit http://www.hotspringsarts.org for more information about Arts & The Park.