☢🔥 TWO WEEKS LEFT! Hot Poetry Contest (nuclear waste theme)

[Ellen Thomas]

Submit your poem today!

It's Not Too Late! There are two weeks left to submit poems to our annual Hot Poetry contest. Winners will be chosen by current Washington state poet laureate Derek Sheffield! Help us spread the word! Our nuclear waste themed poetry contest is open to any student in the United States. Submissions will be accepted January 20 - March 31, 2026. Cash prizes will be provided for at least one and up to 5 winners. Winners will be announced in April. Everything you need to know about the contest is here, including the submission form and resources for students and educators. Derek shares the following advice for anyone writing for this contest: "This is a BIG topic, so it might be a good idea to focus on something small and tangible, the way William Stafford does in his classic poem At the Bomb Testing Site. Also, keep Emily Dickinson's advice in mind: 'Tell all the truth but tell it slant — / Success in Circuit lies.' A poem should have a life of its own. Don't tell this poem what it shall be. Rather, listen and let it tell you. Allow for surprise. Another way to say it: Give your poem free rein." Derek Sheffield is the eighth poet laureate of Washington State (2025-2027). He is the author of Not For Luck, selected by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, and Through the Second Skin, runner-up for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award and finalist for the Washington State Book Award. He is the co-editor, with Simmons Buntin and Elizabeth Dodd, of Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy and, with Elizabeth Bradfield and CMarie Fuhrman, Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry.  Derek's awards include the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year in Nature Writing, and the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Li-Young Lee. Derek lives on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains in Central Washington and is the poetry editor of Terrain.org. Get inspired to write by checking out Derek Sheffield's published books and poems posted on his website. You can see last year's winning poems here. And if you're looking for some additional inspiration, check out some of Derek's favorite poets: William Stafford, Gary Soto, Mary Oliver, Li-Young Lee, Lucille Clifton, Ellen Bass, Jane Hirshfield, Tony Hoagland, Sherman Alexie, Robert Hass, Rhina Espaillat, A.E. Stallings, Galway Kinnell, Gwendolyn Brooks,  A.R. Ammons, Rainier Maria Rilke, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Yusef Komunyakaa, Joy Harjo, W.S. Merwin. Please forward this email to anyone you think might be interested in our Hot Poetry Contest. We are so excited to read your poems! Liz & Miya P.S.- Register today for our Scholar Series webinar next Friday, March 27th at noon PT. Through the exploration and use of arts and multimedia, Lovely Umayam proposes an alternative introduction to nuclear history and politics: one that acknowledges and honors the intimacy of space and place. Funded in part by a Public Participation Grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology. Share Post Follow Connect BlueSky Copyright © 2026 Hanford Challenge, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: PO BOX 28989 Seattle, WA 98118 United States Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe or manage preference.

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