Better Than Starbucks Poetry Magazine Sonnet Contest May 2020

Sonnet Contest 2019 Short list:

These 34 sonnets were chosen by at least two of four editors/judges out of 529 entries. (There were many other poems that one of the given editors would have chosen/published independently.)

The following poems include the three winners and seven honorable mentions

for our top ten which will be published on January 1st 2020.

Black Hills by Marcus Bales

Elegy For Allen Tate by Arthur Powers

Pointing Home by Catherine Chandler

An Offering For Portia Renée by Robert Lavett Smith

Unanswered by Robin Helweg-Larsen

Happiness by Tom Vaughan

Mother Tree by Mary Meriam

Extinction by Sean Corbitt

Discovery of a Small God by Bill Marsh

Listen For Her by Pamela Hobart Carter

The Haint Blue Lake by Frank Osen

Dancing Before Dawn by Elizabeth Spencer Spragins

The Muse of Concord by Ralph La Rosa

Playing With Fire by Barbara Loots

October Shadows by Scott Wiggerman

Fealty by Lisa Barnett

Our Bones by Ciarán Parkes

Aubade by Frank Mundo

Nantahala National Forest by Anna Lena Phillips Bell

Jackie Robinson by Mark J Mitchell

Valhalla by Reagan Upshaw

Return by Mel Goldberg

Connoisseur of Decline by Edison Jennings

What Isn’t Burned Must Rot by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

Indian Love Call by Anne Whitehouse

Snag by Wendy Videlock

Love and Multiple Sclerosis by Tara Campbell

Morphine Pump by Sarah Shirley

At My Mother-in-Law’s House by Jean L Kreiling

Sunday by Hannah Whiteoak

A Kind of Love by Susan McLean

I was wearing a black and amber scarf by Deborah Rosch Eifert

Gothic Fantasia by Philip Goldfarb Styrt

Message From Voyagers I and II by Claudia Gary

December 1st, 2019, 12:00 p.m. EST:

Submissions are now closed.

We have well over 500 sonnets to read and evaluate.

Thank you for all your wonderful entries!

Authors of winning and honorable mention sonnets will be contacted during the week of December 8th.

Prize payments and publication on January 1st, 2020.

Better Than Starbucks 2019 Sonnet Contest

Winning poets receive:

First Place $100.

Second Place $50.

Third Place $25.

Submissions open October 1st and close December 1st, 2019.

Winners will be announced and published on January 1st, 2020.

We will also publish up to seven honorable mention sonnets.

No entry fee and no simultaneous submissions please.

Prize payment via Paypal only.

This contest is for a metrical sonnet.

Your sonnet can be shakespearean, petrarchan, spenserian, rhymed, or slant-rhymed.

Blank verse is fine, as long as the sonnet form is clearly identifiable.

We'll consider tetrameter, hexameter, etc. as well as pentameter.

Some metrical variation is fine, but don't forget the volta!

As always, we do accept previously published work.
Please let us know where the poem was previously published.

If previously published, make sure you have the rights to it. Most publications do not keep the rights to poetry. We do not, we retain the right to use them in anthologies or promotional material as we see fit in the future, but we do not retain any copyright to your work.

Submit up to two sonnets.

Please include your entry in the body of your email, put Sonnet Contest into the subject line of your email, and send to betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com

Any possible loss of formatting in email transmission will be corrected if your sonnet is chosen as a winner or for publication, as you will be asked to proof before publication, but you are welcome to mention special formatting in your submission.

Please include a third person bio of 30 (max 40) words.

An introduction is welcome but not required.

You will receive an acknowledgement of your entry within 24 hours. This is the only communication you will receive unless one or both of your sonnets are selected for publication, either as winners or honorable mentions, or for subsequent publication.

Unlike general submissions to the journal, we do not respond further to contest entries unless they are selected as winners, honorable mentions, or for subsequent publication.

We look forward to reading your entries!

All entries are eligible for publication in Better Than Starbucks. By submitting your work you grant us the non-exclusive right to publish it. Copyright remains with the author/poet.

Judges are Better Than Starbucks editors.

This contest is not open to employees of Better Than Starbucks (or their family members).

The sponsor of this contest wishes to remain anonymous.

Read our 2018 contest winners and runners up here.

More sonnets on the Formal page in our March issue here.

Stay tuned for our 2019 Sonnet Contest this fall!

11:59 pm Saturday December 1st, 2018: Submissions to the contest are now closed.

Thank you for all your wonderful entries — 560 poems!

We look forward to reading them all and selecting the winner as well as honorable mentions. Poets will be contacted in advance. Publication and prize payment will be

made on January 1st, 2019. All submitted sonnets may be considered for publication.

Better Than Starbucks 2018 Sonnet Contest

Winning poet receives $100.

Submissions open October 1st and close December 1st, 2018.

Winner to be announced and published on January 1st, 2019.

We will also publish at least 4 honorable mention sonnets.