poetry Broadside Contest

The 2026 Ashland Poetry Press Broadside Contest opens September 1.

2026 Submission Guidelines

·        Submission period: September 1 to November 1, 2026
·        One entry = one to two unpublished poems. (Each poem will be judged individually; not as a pair.)·       
·        Multiple submissions are welcome, but a new fee is required for each entry.
·        Poems should be 40 lines or fewer to accommodate the page (including spaces between stanzas)
·        Please do not send fully designed broadsides; only poems.
·        Ashland University graduates or past students of Poetry Press director Chuck Carlise should not submit.

First place receives: $250 and 50 printed copies of their winning broadside (as well as the digital original)
Two runners-up receive: 25 printed copies of their winning broadside (as well as the digital original)

2026 Judge: Janine Joseph

The 2026 contest judge will be poet, librettist, professor, and editor Janine Joseph.

Janine Joseph is a formerly undocumented poet and librettist from the Philippines. She is the author of Decade of the Brain, winner of the 2024 Virginia Literary Award for Poetry, and Driving without a License, winner of the 2014 Kundiman Poetry Prize and finalist for the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award. She is also co-editor of the anthology Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora, which was awarded a Bronze Medal for Best Poetry Anthology by the 2025 International Latino Book Awards. Since 2016, Janine has organized for Undocupoets, a nonprofit literary organization that advocates for poets who are currently or who were formerly undocumented in the United States.

Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Nation, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Georgia Review, Poetry Northwest, The Rumpus, Pleiades, Kenyon Review Online, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, and the Smithsonian’s “What It Means to Be American” project. Her commissioned chamber operas, song cycles, and choral works have been featured with Symphony New Hampshire, Washington Master Chorale, and Houston Grand Opera.

Janine earned a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, an MFA from New York University, a BA from UC Riverside, and an AA from Riverside City College. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, where she directs both the MFA in Creative Writing and Undergraduate Creative Writing Programs.

Past Judges:
2025: Marcelo Hernandez-Castillo
2024: Adam Gellings
2023: Chuck Carlise

Some Notes on the Contest:

We are looking for ways to make literature more present in everyday life.  Poetry broadsides can be framed (or not) and hung like paintings or photos on the wall.  They’re beautiful, captivating, and they compel people to stop and read a poem.  We’d like more of that in the world.

What kind of poems are you looking for?

There is no theme or preference for this contest; we only want to read great poems and make beautiful art.

Who’s judging and then designing the winning broadsides?

The contest will be judged by the Ashland Poetry Press staff.  Winners will be designed by poet and artist Lindsay Lusby.  (Here’s some of her past work.) 

Anything else to know?

All entrants to the contest entrants will also receive a 50% discount on each of the three winning broadsides.

Winners will be announced in January, and the winning broadsides are available for purchase at AWP as well as on our website (www.ashlandpoetrypress.com).