In case you aren’t following us on social, we have another amazing gift for our poets.
In addition to the $150 cash prize and poetry business coaching, we are honored to announce that we’ve secured another sponsorship for our first-place winner.
The prized package also now includes an interview on FIYE Radio (Flaava in Ya Ear), sponsored by FIYE 101.9 Atlanta Radio (@fiyeradio), courtesy of my good sis, Sunday Jones @sundayjonesislife.
Here is some VIP, behind-the-scenes insight:
Interviewee must have a bio and/or one-sheet to be considered outside of the winnings/contest.
Interviews (including the IG Live) will be scheduled only after we’ve announced the top 3 winners.
Radio interviews will be scheduled based on the artist’s and the show’s availability. If you miss the interview or are late without prior communication, it will be forfeited.
We are less than 30 days from the deadline, which means this is the perfect time to submit if you’ve been thinking about it. Don’t make it easy for someone to snatch up these goodies!
Reminder of Theme with Examples:
“What We’re Carrying Now.”
This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets but also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.
This can look like a protest or a prayer, a memory or a breaking point, a quiet confession or a bold declaration.
Examples:
Social/Political Climate (e.g., living through turbulent times)
Identity & Selfhood (e.g., what it means to carry your identity, race, gender, culture, faith, in today’s world)
Ancestry, Memory, Legacy (e.g., carrying the legacy of those who came before you, generational trauma/healing/strength)
Survival & Resilience (e.g., small acts of survival, joy, rest, boundaries)
Spiritual/Philosophical (e.g., Faith, purpose, or direction in uncertain times)
How to Enter
Subscribe to the list here. (If you are only interested in the contest, check the poetry contest only box.)
Submit your poem on or before 6/1/26.
Don’t forget to visit and bookmark the website here.
When I think about poetry, there is one movie that comes to mind. It is my favorite rom-com of all time.
Wait. The Best Man is my other all-time favorite.
And The Wood.
Okay, so I have a lot of favorites, but this one is specific to poetry.
Let’s stay focused.
Released in 2002 and directed by Rick Famuyiwa (who also directed The Wood), everything about Brown Sugar is poetic to me. From the title to the opening credits, I was hooked. Still am.
Sidney and Dre are childhood best friends. Sid is an editor for XXL, a hip-hop magazine, and Dre is a producer at a record company he hates. And from the beginning, it’s all poetry.
It starts at the very beginning with that dope, nostalgic opening featuring artists like Common, Kool G Rap, Pete Rock, Talib Kweli, Big Daddy Kane, Questlove, Black Thought, Method Man, and Russell Simmons — describing how they “fell in love with hip-hop.”
My new favorite question when interviewing poets is to ask them, “When did you first fall in love with poetry?” And, to be clear: I am not asking when you first started writing it or when you were introduced to it. I am asking, when did you know you loved it? So anywho, the question comes from this movie.
Then it goes a step further, paralleling Sidney and Dre’s deep, evolving relationship with hip-hop’s growth from street culture to mainstream art.
We see this couple grow from childhood friends to lovers using hip-hop’s language and history as a central metaphor to express their unspoken feelings for one another.
On top of this, Sidney is a writer penning her first book, a love letter to hip hop.
As the movie progresses, we see that this letter serves not just as a confession of Sid’s love for the music, but also her love for Dre. Sidney’s narration is the poetry, and the poetry is hip-hop and everything in between, acting as both the main and supporting character.
Rather than presenting poetry as a fading art, movies like Love Jones and Brown Sugar show it as something embedded in how we love, speak, and make sense of the world, like an instinct woven into how we feel, remember, and connect.
So…
I am nudging an old tape recorder over to you. The reels inside give a faint rattle before my finger hovers over the record button…
When did you first fall in love with poetry?
Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual
Poetry Contest 2026
This year’s poetry contest is in full swing! Entries are being accepted as we speak.
As we are already halfway through April, and ya’ll know May is gonna fly by too, here are some reminders before June sneaks up on us:
When submitting your poem, please do not forget to add your name to the document! I know it sounds like common sense, but you have no idea how many times we have to send pieces back that don’t include a name.
Also, for this contest, your piece should be sent as a PDF or Word document.
By entering this contest, you retain full ownership of your work. Submission to the contest does not transfer any rights, and your poem will not be reproduced, published, or used beyond contest purposes without your explicit permission.
Don’t forget that your poem must touch on our theme in some way. For the full list of rules and guidelines, please click here.
Also, cash prizes are only the beginning! We are also doing interviews and social media promo! This is not the year to miss.
What We’re Carrying Now
This year’s theme is “What We’re Carrying Now: We are seeking poems that center on personal loss, collective memory, survival, endurance, or the emotional weight of living in today’s social and political climate.
We are looking for writing that lingers and reminds us why poetry still matters. How have you been processing this moment in history? Bring us the weight you’ve been holding. Bring us the language that knows how to hold it.
This can look like a protest or a prayer, a memory or a breaking point, a quiet confession or a bold declaration.
Examples:
Social/Political Climate (e.g., living through turbulent times)
Identity & Selfhood (e.g., what it means to carry your identity, race, gender, culture, faith, in today’s world)
Ancestry, Memory, Legacy (e.g., carrying the legacy of those who came before you, generational trauma/healing/strength)
Survival & Resilience (e.g., small acts of survival, joy, rest, boundaries)
Spiritual/Philosophical (e.g., Faith, purpose, or direction in uncertain times)
…and so on.
We did not always have a website for the contest, but now we do! Be sure you are bookmarking it to stay updated on all things contest-related.
This week, we’ve been rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up next is Estefania Lugo.
Estefanía Lugo is a brilliant bilingual creative strategist with a sharp eye for the written word.
She delights in exploring authors’ imaginations and celebrating the richness of their voices.
This contest is not just national but international, and we are honored to have Estefanía as part of the team!
If you are on Instagram, please head over to my page here and show her some love!
Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!
Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”
This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.
This week, we are rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up next is BrinwiththePen.
Love-centered poet Brinwiththepen inspires safety and inclusion through her poetry and the workshops she facilitates.
Brin joined Atlanta’s poetry community in 2021 and pours into the intentional time and space of writing with The Ink Refill, a monthly poetry writing workshop.
I met her in 2024 when we were both poetry features at the same event. I also got to witness her brilliance at one of her workshops.
We are honored to have Brinwiththepen and her company as part of our judges’ panel for this year’s poetry contest!
Please help us welcome The Ink Refill to the team!
If you are on Instagram, please head over to @theinkrefill and show her some love!
We have more shout-outs to give. Stay glued.
Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!
Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”
This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.
Today, we are rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up first is Joshua Clark.
Joshua Clark, who goes by Roses, is a Dallas-based spoken word poet, creative specialist, and Texas Chapter Leader of the Poetry Business Network.
He is the CEO of Sculpted Roses Company (@sculptedrosescompany), where his team offers mental health and creative writing workshops, poetry sessions, and public speaking engagements.
We are proud to have Roses and his company as part of our judging panel for this year’s poetry contest!
Please help us welcome Sculpted Roses Company to the team!
If you are on Instagram, please head over to @sculptedrosescompany and show this brother some love!
We have more shout-outs to give. Stay glued.
Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!
Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”
This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.
We are pleased to announce that this year’s poetry contest is now open! Submissions will remain open until June 1, 2026.
Entry: Email Subscription (Free)*
*If you are already subscribed, you can skip this step.
Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”
This year’s theme centers on personal loss, collective memory, survival, endurance, and/or the emotional weight of living in today’s social and political climate.
This year, we are asking poets to create a living archive of how they are processing, surviving, and making meaning in this moment in history.
What are you carrying this season? What are we carrying now?
We quote Martin with a rhythm that swells the chest.
Malcolm’s words hum like power.
Assata’s taste like survival.
Garvey’s tickles the ear.
Lumumba’s boom like djembe drums.
Angela’s convinces the tongue that it is brave.
But no one applauds
the silence that follows a truth
told too clearly
in a world where lies
are the laws of the land.
We forget that Zora died counting coins,
her name folded small in her own purse.
Lowered into the earth without a stone to speak for her
in a segregated garden of silence
while her words, once blazing,
lay out of print like abandoned children.
We forget that revolution is only another word for change,
and change is rarely applauded in its own lifetime.
The ones who bend the arc of the world
often do it alone,
unclapped.
Revolution sounds sweet in the mouth
like a hymn rising,
like the lift of a firstborn into waiting arms,
like the soft hush of skin against skin.
But ain’t no red carpet
for the prophet.
Just dust. Truth.
And the long walk home.
This poem was inspired by an amazing podcast episode of “Our Ancestors Were Messy” about the friendship between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes (which I’ve hinted at in my novel Renaissance), their fall-out, and what culminated in the tragic ending of a folklorist, documentarian, author, and anthropologist.
Once one of the most successful writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston would die in poverty in the segregated wing of a welfare home. Her body would be buried in an unmarked grave. The woman who preserved Black life faded into obscurity until she was rediscovered by Alice Walker in 1973.
Walker would resurrect Hurston’s writings and place a marker on her grave that read, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”
The PBS Blog 