Poetry Contest
The Enoch Pratt Free Library Poetry Contest is an annual event open to Maryland poets age 18 and older.
2024 Poetry Contest Winner
Congratulations to Marc A. Drexler, whose poem "A Few Blocks" won the 2024 Enoch Pratt Free Library Poetry Contest, judged by Little Patuxent Review.
Runners-up were Kate Powell Shine, for "INFRINGED: A Second Amendment Erasure,” and Preet Bhela, for “Hollows.”
Marc A. Drexler has lived in Maryland most of his life since moving from Iowa to attend Johns Hopkins University. His poem "Baltimore, 1977" appears in Maryland in Poetry (2020). He has a poem on some Arlington Transit (ART) buses in Virginia as part of their Moving Words project through September 2024. He has been published by Split This Rock and The Mid-Atlantic Review. Marc has also served as a Community Teaching Assistant for the Coursera online course Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (ModPo), led by Al Filreis out of UPenn. He worked for many years at the Maryland Food Co-op on the University of Maryland, College Park campus and believes strongly in collectivism.
The poems by all three finalists will be published in Little Patuxent Review’s Summer 2024 issue and celebrated at a public event at the Central Library on Tuesday, August 20, at 6:30 p.m. The winning poem may also be turned into a collectible broadside. For more information, please email poetry@prattlibrary.org.
There were 277 poems submitted to the 2024 Poetry Contest, representing 64 cities and towns and 19 counties in Maryland plus Baltimore City.
Thank you to everyone who entered the 2024 Poetry Contest!
Check out our upcoming poetry events for adults:
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Join us for a discussion of Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's Iliad. This program has a hybrid format. Participate…April 20, 11 AM -
In celebration of National Poetry Month, join us for a reading by local poets Shirley Brewer, Edward Doyle-Gillespie, and…April 20, 3 PM -
A read and critique group for writers with interest in all forms of writing: poetry, novel, short story, creative nonfiction…April 22, 6 PM -
An empowering and rewarding experience to write an hour each week at the same time and place. This experience serves as powerful…April 25, 12 PM
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