How Prizes Are Awarded for the NWG Poetry Contest

The contest awards the top three highest scores as follows:

First Place: $100.00

Second Place: $50.00

Third Place: $25.00

In the event of a tie, all authors receive one payout for the place they tied for. In other words, if a single author ties for the same place with more than one poem, that author receives only one payout. Think of it this way, the prize is for the place the author wins, not for the number of poems the author wins with.

Examples:

1.     Author 1 and Author 2 tie for second place with one poem each. Both authors receive $50.00.

2.     Author 1 and Author 2 tie for second place, but Author 1 has TWO poems with the second-place-winning score, and Author 2 has one poem. Author 1 does not receive $50.00 per poem, but rather receives one $50.00 payout. Author 2 also receives $50.00.

3.     Author 1 ties for second place with Author 1! As in example #2 above, Author 1 receives $50.00, not $100.00.

A single author cannot win more than one prize, regardless of how many poems the author submits. If an author scores in more than one of the top three places, the highest score will be awarded and the other score(s) will be set aside. For example, if an author has poems scoring in the first and third places, the first place score will be awarded and the third place score will be set aside. The fourth highest scored poem will then move up to the third-place position.

The reason for this is that we want to recognize a variety of authors and prevent any one author from holding a monopoly over that recognition. That said, if an author were to have two or more poems that all score for the same place, as in examples #2 and #3 above, all poems with that same score will be recognized (i.e., an author can win only one place, but they can win that place with more than one poem).

All awarded poems will be published in that year’s NWG anthology.