Submissions for the Worcester County Poetry Association's Frank O'Hara prize open in Jan.

There are no shortage of poetry contests out there – a quick Google search will net you thousands – but there’s always been something special about the Worcester County Poetry Association’s Frank O’Hara Prize, named for the famed 20th century poet and artist who grew up in Grafton.

“O’Hara, along with Kenneth Koch and others, was a leader of ‘the New York School’ in the 1950s and ‘60s,” explains Elizabeth Bacon, the current president of the WCPA and the community coordinator for The Clemente Course in the Humanities. “They were the vanguard of contemporary culture and this is what the WCPA hopes to encourage through our annual contest – a reverence for and an encouragement of poetry as a life force.” Big goals, but the contest – which will be open for submissions from Jan. 1 through March 31 – has a great track record of drawing great poetry from the region, with recent winners including the 2022 winner, Jennifer Freed, and the late poets Richard Fox and Dan Lewis.

So what is this year’s judge, Connecticut poet Dennis Barone, looking for?

“It sounds stupid to say,” says Barone, who is the author of several books, Professor Emeritus at the University of Saint Joseph, and currently serves as the poetry editor for the Wallace Stevens Journal and as President of the Hartford Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens – “but to look for the best poems that are adventurous in language and have something meaningful to say. They don’t have to be formulistic poems, experimental, innovative poems. Mostly just poems that have a beauty of language and deep thought in their conception and statement.”

That said, he’s keeping an open mind: “On the other hand,” he says, “they could be really simple, too. Sometimes even the simplest statement can be the most beautiful and most complex.”

Ultimately, Barone’s advice is for poets to “choose their best poem or a poem that they think is especially good for this particular competition,” adding that he’s open to any style or form, and that he likes references to the county or city, although it’s not necessary.

The contest, according to the WCPA website, is open any resident of Worcester County, a student or employee of institutions within Worcester County, or a WCPA member in good standing. First Place winners of previous WCPA annual poetry contests are not eligible to enter, and there is no charge to submit, although there is a $3 fee to submit electronically. Paper submissions can be mailed to WCPA Poetry Contest, PO Box 804, Worcester, MA, 01613. More complete submission guideline can be found at worcestercountypoetry.org.

All of the winners will be chosen by Barone. The prize for first place is $100, second place is $75, and third place is $50. Winning poems will also be published in The Worcester Review, the literary journal of the WCPA. Contest winners will be announced in June 2024, with a winners’ reading and awards reception to be held in September.

“From my end,” says WCPA board member and Worcester Magazine columnist Joe Fusco Jr., “The O'Hara contest gives the WCPA an opportunity to reach out to poets in Worcester-County and have them share their writings with our judge, and the community at-large if they're one of the winners ... The WCPA is all about spreading poetry far and wide in every corner of Worcester County.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Poet Dennis Barone to judge WCPA's Frank O'Hara Prize poetry contest