The Department of English invites students to compete for the H. MacKnight Black Competition in Poetry Prize (open to seniors only) or the Jean Corrie Poetry Competition Prize (open to first-year students, sophomores, and juniors).
A maximum of three poems may be submitted, each typed on a separate sheet of paper. All poems submitted must be original and unpublished in campus publications or elsewhere, including on blogs and anywhere else on the Internet. The poems must be labeled with the name of the prize (H.MacKnight Black or Jean Corrie) for which you are eligible. The writer’s name, class year, email address, and phone number must appear on the accompanying envelope or folder but not on the poems themselves.
All entries must be submitted to Maureen Mulrooney, administrative assistant, Department of English, 316 Pardee, no later than noon Wed., March 1.
The H. MacKnight Black Competition Prize ($500 by deed of gift) is awarded annually in memory of H. MacKnight Black ’16, who at the time of his death in 1931 was one of America’s significant poets. The Jean Corrie Competition Prize ($100 by deed of gift) is sponsored by both the Lafayette College Department of English and the Academy of American Poets. Entries are judged by award-winning poets.
The judge of the 2023 MacKnight Black Competition will be Aria Aber. Aria Aber is a recipient of the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, a Whiting Foundation Award in Poetry, and fellowships from Kundiman, Dickinson House, and the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Aber’s poetry has been published in The New Yorker, Kenyon Review, New Republic, etc. Her book, Hard Damage, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in September 2019. If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Prof. Megan Fernandes at fernanmk@lafayette.edu.
The judge of the 2023 Jean Corrie Competition in Poetry will be Darrell Parry. Darrell Parry is a writer, artist and event organizer from Easton, Pennsylvania. He founded the online publication Stick Figure Poetry Quarterly and the monthly Stick Figure Poetry Open Mic. He also co-hosts Lehigh Valley Poetry’s Virtual Salon, which meets on Zoom the first Monday of every month. He is the author of Twists: Gathered Ephemera published by Parisian Phoenix Publishing in 2021. If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Prof. Chris Phillips at phillipc@lafayette.edu.