Jane Underwood Poetry Prize
About the Prize
The Jane Underwood Poetry Prize was established to celebrate and memorialize Jane Underwood, the founder and long-time director of The Writing Salon who passed away in 2016. Jane was a gifted poet who made The Writing Salon a prominent and respected creative writing school in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was well known for her generous spirit and her direct and encouraging teaching style. A posthumous collection of her poems, entitled When My Heart Goes Dark, I Turn the Porch Light On, was published in 2017.
Open to all poets, the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize is awarded for a single poem. The 2025 final judge is Matthew Olzmann. The prizewinner will receive a $500 award and publication at The Writing Salon’s website.
2024
Congratulations to the Winner!
The 2024 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize winner is Marian Urquilla for her poem “Turtle Meditations.”
Finalists:
Maisie Kirn
Angelica Recierdo
JoAnna Scandiffio
Alex Wong
The Prizewinner Will Receive
An award of $500
Publication of the winning poem at The Writing Salon’s website
An invitation to do a featured reading at The Writing Salon
An award of $500
Publication of the winning poem at The Writing Salon’s website
Contest Guidelines
- The contest is open to all poets.
- The entry fee is $15. This fee is non-refundable.
- Contestants may submit one entry of up to 3 poems. Poems must be sent in a single file.
- Each of the 3 poems may not exceed 80 lines in length.
- We do not consider previously published work, which includes online publications.
- Files should not include any information that reveals the identity of the author. Any entries that reveal the author’s identity will be discounted.
- File name must include the full or abbreviated title of each poem submitted.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Notify us immediately if a poem is placed elsewhere by sending an email to submissions@writingsalons.com.
- Email and mail submissions will not be read.
- All rights revert to the author upon publication of the poem.
- The winner and finalists will be announced at our website.
Important Contest Dates
Submission Period:
Open to Submissions
The Winner & Finalists will be
announced in March 2026.
Important Contest Dates
Submission Period:
Open to Submissions
The Winner & Finalists will be
announced in March 2026.
Contest Guidelines
- The contest is open to all poets.
- The entry fee is $15. This fee is non-refundable.
- Contestants may submit one entry of up to 3 poems. Poems must be sent in a single file.
- Each of the 3 poems may not exceed 80 lines in length.
- We do not consider previously published work, which includes online publications.
- Files should not include any information that reveals the identity of the author. Any entries that reveal the author’s identity will be discounted.
- File name must include the full or abbreviated title of each poem submitted.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Notify us immediately if a poem is placed elsewhere by sending an email to submissions@writingsalons.com.
- Email and mail submissions will not be read.
- All rights revert to the author upon publication of the poem.
- The winner and finalists will be announced at our website.
Reading Policy
We believe that blind judging offers contestants a fair and unbiased reading of their work. We assure all contestants that their identity will not be revealed to our readers and ask that they refrain from including identifying information on their submissions. A selection of poets will screen the entries, and Matthew Olzmann will be the final judge. All readers have a distinguished publication record and have won major poetry prizes. Each entry will pass through at least two readers.
2025 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize Final Judge
Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route as well as two previous collections of poetry: Mezzanines and Contrad
Hear from Our Judge
While it may seem contradictory, we often turn to poetry specifically because words fail us. There are limitations to language, things we can’t express adequately and things we can’t express at all. So we turn to metaphor; we turn to poetry. The poem, when it works, doesn’t just declare an emotion, it makes that emotion tangible; it allows us to actually understand that experience with greater speed and clarity.
Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route as well as two previous collections of poetry: Mezzanines and Contrad
Hear from Our Judge
While it may seem contradictory, we often turn to poetry specifically because words fail us. There are limitations to language, things we can’t express adequately and things we can’t express at all. So we turn to metaphor; we turn to poetry. The poem, when it works, doesn’t just declare an emotion, it makes that emotion tangible; it allows us to actually understand that experience with greater speed and clarity.
Past Winners
2024 – Marian Urquilla: Turtle Meditations (selected by Brian Teare)
2023 – Angel Bista: Notes on the War, from My Mother (selected by Craig Santos Perez)
2022 – Purvi Shah: In a womb – a new era – & Kali’s tongue (selected by Sharan Strange)
2021 – Sydney Vogl: All the Bars Are Closing (selected by Vandana Khanna)
2020 – Kelly Grace Thomas: Nothing Roots or Infertility (selected by David Hernandez)
2019 – John Sibley Williams: Armistice (selected by Rick Barot)
2018 – Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet: When the women imagine their mothers in death (selected by Arisa White)
2017 – Amanda Moore: When I Hear “Horses” as “Corsets” (selected by Julie Bruck, Alison Luterman & Kathleen McClung)
Past Winners
2024 – Marian Urquilla: Turtle Meditations (selected by Brian Teare)
2023 – Angel Bista: Notes on the War, from My Mother (selected by Craig Santos Perez)
2022 – Purvi Shah: In a womb – a new era – & Kali’s tongue (selected by Sharan Strange)
2021 – Sydney Vogl: All the Bars Are Closing (selected by Vandana Khanna)
2020 – Kelly Grace Thomas: Nothing Roots or Infertility (selected by David Hernandez)
2019 – John Sibley Williams: Armistice (selected by Rick Barot)
2018 – Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet: When the women imagine their mothers in death (selected by Arisa White)
2017 – Amanda Moore: When I Hear “Horses” as “Corsets” (selected by Julie Bruck, Alison Luterman & Kathleen McClung)
Ready to Submit Your Poems for the 2025 Competition?
Maw Shein WinMaw Shein Win
Maw Shein Win’s poetry chapbooks are Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA/Commonwealth Projects) and Score and Bone (Nomadic Press). Invisible Gifts: Poems was published by Manic D Press in 2018. Win is the first poet laureate of El Cerrito, California (2016 – 2018). Her full-length poetry collection, Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn), was long listed for the PEN America Open Book Award, nominated for a Northern California Book Award for Poetry, and short listed for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Golden Poppy Award for Poetry for 2021. She often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other writers and was a Spring 2021 ARC Poetry Fellow at UC Berkeley.
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