BELFAST — The Maine Postmark Poetry Contest, a statewide competition, is happening again this year in conjunction with the 12th annual Belfast Poetry Festival, to be held October 14 & 15, (belfastpoetry.com). Maine residents and everyone with access to a Maine post office or mailbox this summer is invited to enter. Citizens, residents, and visitors to our great state are all welcome: the only rule is that all entries must bear a Maine postmark.

To enter, submit one poem of up to two (2) total pages in length; each entry must be accompanied by a $5 reading fee. Proceeds will be used to support the festival. Entrants may submit more than one poem, but each additional poem is an additional $5.

The Belfast Poetry Festival Committee will screen entries and forward finalists to an outside judge, poet Connie Voisine of Fort Kent, who will choose first, second, and third place winners. The first place winner will receive a $100 cash prize and publication in Off the Coast, 'Maine's International Poetry Journal.' Winners will be invited to read the winning poem and be honored at the Belfast Poetry Festival in October; winning poems will also be announced and published in the Maine press. The top 10 poems will be featured in Belfast art galleries during October and the top 10 poets will be featured at a showcase reading, Friday, October 14.

Connie Voisine, from an Acadian family of Fort Kent, is the daughter of a lumberjack and currently teaches at New Mexico State University. She is the author of Calle Florista. Her previous book, Rare High Meadow of Which I Might Dream, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Her first book, Cathedral of the North, won the Associated Writing Program's Award in Poetry. She has poems published in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. Voisine has just returned from a Fulbright fellowship in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Submissions are welcome from now until August 1; only submissions received with a Maine postmark dated August 1 or earlier will be read. Poems should be sent without the poet's name on the poem and accompanied by a cover letter listing the poet's name, contact information (address, email, and phone), and the title of the poem(s) submitted so that poems can be read anonymously. Cover letters need not include biographical information. Poems sent without a cover letter or entry fee will be disqualified. All poems must be original and previously unpublished. Poems will not be returned, so please do not send originals or a SASE. Winners will be notified by September 15; other confirmation of receipt should not be expected.

Send entries accompanied by a cover letter with contact information and a check for $5 per poem made out to the Belfast Free Library — to:

Jacob Fricke, Belfast Poetry Festival
Attn: Maine Postmark Poetry Contest
P.O. Box 911
Belfast, ME 04915

The Belfast Poetry Festival, one of the few community-based, non-academic poetry festivals in the country, is now in its 12th year of production with support from Off the Coast, the City of Belfast, the Belfast Free Library, the Belfast Co-op, and Our Town Belfast. For more information on this year's events, contact Jacob Fricke at jacob@belfastpoetry.com, check out the website at belfastpoetry.com or see facebook.com/BelfastPoetryFestival.