Contest Histories
Contest Histories
The histories of each of the contests were compiled in 2025 and 2026. There are some records that are incomplete. If you have any information on blank years, we would love to know. Please email the contest coordinator at contests.ctpoetry@gmail.com.
Established in 2009, this award is in honor of CPS founders Ben Brodine, Joseph Brodinsky, and Wallace Winchell. The Brodine/Brodzinsky and the Wallace Winchell awards were merged into this contest.
This contest was established in memoriam to honor Lynn DeCaro, a young CPS member who passed away from leukemia in1986. Open to any student attending a Conneticut high school, it hasbeen made possible through the generous support of the DeCaro family.
Established in 2021, this contest is for poets who explore the creative alchemy of words, form, and visuals. Poems can be text, audio, or video files, exploring entirely new forms, experimental existing forms, or radical subversions of tradition. One prize is awarded each year.
This award is in honor of Al Savard (Soutbury, Connecticut), a former president of the CPS. The Al Savard Poetry Award was held from 2007 to 2013. After a five-year hiatus, it was re-established as the Nutmeg award in 2019.
Established in 2021, this contest is named for Vivian Shipley, a Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, a recipient of the Library of Congress’s Connecticut Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Literary Community, a two-time Connecticut Book Award winner, and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, who generously supports this award.
Connecticut River Review Poetry Award - Of the same name as the annual Connecticut River Review poetry journal, this contest ran from 2005 to 2020. The CRRPA Through the Years
Dehn Poetry Competition - There is not much known history with regard to this contest. Find out the 2007 winner.
Margaret Gibson Poetry Award - Conducted one year when Gibson was poet laureate of the state of Connecticut. Find out the 2023 winner.