The Friends’ annual Poetry Contest is a community-wide event held each spring for more than 35 years. Once the year’s theme is announced, local poets of all ages may enter their work into the competition. Winners are then invited to a ceremony at the West Roxbury Branch Library where each winning poem is read aloud.
The 2025 Theme is: ROOM
Submissions due by: March 7, 2025
How to enter: Please include your name, address, phone number, age, and email
Eligibility: Students and community members from the Boston metro area.
Students: Please also include your school and grade; non-BPS students may enter.
- Submit poems (limit:2) one of three ways:
E-mail to FriendsoftheWestRoxburyLibrary@gmail.com - Mail to:
Poetry Contest
West Roxbury Branch Library 1961 Centre St.
West Roxbury, MA 02132 - Deliver by hand to the poetry contest drop-box in the West Roxbury Branch Library lobby
Awards Ceremony: May 5, 2025, includes grades K-8, high school, adults, and seniors
Questions? E-mail Friendsofthewestroxburylibrary@gmail.com
Introducing Our New Judge
We are pleased and honored to have Anne Elezabeth Pluto take on the role of selecting award winners for the 2025 poetry contest for all ages.
Anne is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. She is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company and was a member of the Worcester Shakespeare Company 2011 – 2016. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980s and is one of the founders and editors at Nixes Mate Review and Nixes Mate Books. She has two full-length collections: The Deepest Part of Dark, Unlikely Stories Press, NOLA (2020), and How Many Miles to Babylon?, Lily Books, (2023).
The 36th annual poetry contest will get underway in late January of 2025 with the announcement of this year’s theme. Poets will have approximately 6 weeks to submit their entries and the awards ceremony will take place in early May.
Submissions may be entered by hand at the library, via email, or mailed directly to the Friends. Watch this website for more details about the contest.
Below are excerpts from several winning poems for the 2024 theme of “WONDER.”
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