National Federation of State Poetry Societies

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF STATE POETRY SOCIETIES
PUBLICATIONS PAGES
Click on the book you wish to order or the contest name to see a list of available books

NFSPS Annual Poetry Contest
Prize-winning poems chosen from more than 6,000 submissions are featured in the 2022 edition of Encore. The annual anthology of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies features the top 159 poems from winners across the U.S. and the world. Our fifty contests challenged poets to write in a variety of forms, such as villanelle, golden shovel, rondeau, and haibun. They also interpret wide-ranging subjects like the geography of fire, loss of a child, listening, power of women, and daily rituals. The addition of three categories for high school and elementary school students adds another layer to the volume's diversity. Encore 2022 opens with a three-page, $1,000 winning poem by Lou Jones of Georgia and closes with a three-line haiku by fourth-grader Tiffany Zhou of Iowa. Cover to cover, the anthology offers the uniqueness of many voices and styles for you to explore.

C. U. P. Competpetition
Edna Meudt Memorial
A Gentle & Modern Ape is the winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) 2023 College Undergraduate Competition Poetry (chapbook) Edna Meudt Memorial Award. The competition judge, Alina Stefanescu, commented that she "couldn’t stop returning to the distinct voice and incredible language of A Gentle & Modern Ape. Navigating the mental maps of Americans who don’t have space for Kenyans, the speaker moves between laughter and rue in a sharp, dizzying manner, as in the assertion that his passport is 'fake' because '‘Kenya’ isn’t a real country.' A line breaks with wordplay; a dialogue swerves around catachresis: If there is technique, this poet wields it! 'Banana Poem' took my breath away with its sparkling subversion of stereotypes. I’m amazed by the enjambment, and something like Frank O’Hara’s wit meeting Shailja Patel’s lyric in the margins."

C. U. P. Competition
Kahn Memorial
Grief House is the winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) 2023 College Undergraduate Competition Poetry (chapbook) Florence Kahn Memorial Award. The competition judge, Alina Stefanescu, commented that "Grief House immersed me in the world created by the poet’s specular attention to detail. From the noise of television blurring the background to the dialogue between broken glass and a dog in the park, everything conspires to speak, and each noun is lit by this potential. 'The catechisms, the crushes, the jealousies' buried in a dead mother’s diary, the daughter casting herself as Catherine the Great only to discover 'a girl dressed in ghosthood' . . . the skill with which this poet carves a tangible elegy, and then leaves us with a resonant image: 'in the foreground: only a woman and a knife.'”

Stevens Manuscript
Petrichor is a powerful collection of honest poems declaring the power of resilience. They are filled with fresh, engaging imagery that holds the tension between beauty and harsh truths. Nancy Hengeveld takes us into the life of a woman with a son in prison, an abusive husband, and her challenges in beginning again. When she is “gasping behind the bathroom door waiting for the deep voice the pounding,” we feel fear. When she finds solace, so do we: “I came to see the firmness of marble, carvings on oak, curves of arches and windows, to feel the space between my head and the ceiling.”

BlackBerryPeach

The Blackberry Peach awards are for
written and spoken prize winning poems
selected in a national competition annually
by the National Federation of State Poetry
Societies (NFSPS). This book contains the
four prize winners in written and spoken
poetry for 2022.

NFSPS Annual Poetry Contest	Prize-winning poems chosen from more than 6,000 submissions are featured in the 2022 edition of Encore. The annual anthology of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies features the top 159 poems from winners across the U.S. and the world. Our fifty contests challenged poets to write in a variety of forms, such as villanelle, golden shovel, rondeau, and haibun. They also interpret wide-ranging subjects like the geography of fire, loss of a child, listening, power of women, and daily rituals. The addition of three categories for high school and elementary school students adds another layer to the volume's diversity. Encore 2022 opens with a three-page, $1,000 winning poem by Lou Jones of Georgia and closes with a three-line haiku by fourth-grader Tiffany Zhou of Iowa. Cover to cover, the anthology offers the uniqueness of many voices and styles for you to explore.

C. U. P. Competpetition Edna Meudt Memorial	A Gentle & Modern Ape is the winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) 2023 College Undergraduate Competition Poetry (chapbook) Edna Meudt Memorial Award. The competition judge, Alina Stefanescu, commented that she "couldn’t stop returning to the distinct voice and incredible language of A Gentle & Modern Ape. Navigating the mental maps of Americans who don’t have space for Kenyans, the speaker moves between laughter and rue in a sharp, dizzying manner, as in the assertion that his passport is 'fake' because '‘Kenya’ isn’t a real country.' A line breaks with wordplay; a dialogue swerves around catachresis: If there is technique, this poet wields it! 'Banana Poem' took my breath away with its sparkling subversion of stereotypes. I’m amazed by the enjambment, and something like Frank O’Hara’s wit meeting Shailja Patel’s lyric in the margins."
C. U. P. Competition Kahn Memorial	Grief House is the winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) 2023 College Undergraduate Competition Poetry (chapbook) Florence Kahn Memorial Award. The competition judge, Alina Stefanescu, commented that "Grief House immersed me in the world created by the poet’s specular attention to detail. From the noise of television blurring the background to the dialogue between broken glass and a dog in the park, everything conspires to speak, and each noun is lit by this potential. 'The catechisms, the crushes, the jealousies' buried in a dead mother’s diary, the daughter casting herself as Catherine the Great only to discover 'a girl dressed in ghosthood' . . . the skill with which this poet carves a tangible elegy, and then leaves us with a resonant image: 'in the foreground: only a woman and a knife.'”
Stevens Manuscript	Petrichor is a powerful collection of honest poems declaring the power of resilience. They are filled with fresh, engaging imagery that holds the tension between beauty and harsh truths. Nancy Hengeveld takes us into the life of a woman with a son in prison, an abusive husband, and her challenges in beginning again. When she is “gasping behind the bathroom door waiting for the deep voice the pounding,” we feel fear. When she finds solace, so do we: “I came to see the firmness of marble, carvings on oak, curves of arches and windows, to feel the space between my head and the ceiling.”