Better Than Starbucks Poetry Journal Sonnet Contest September 2020

Sonnet Contest 2020 Top Ten

The following three winners and seven honorable mentions will be published on February 1st, 2021.

First Place:

For Trevion in the Local News by Barbara Loots

Second Place:

The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian

Third Place:

Salvage by Catherine Chandler

Honorable Mentions:

Last Call by Kit Rohrbach

Ornithology and its Discontents by Enriqueta Carrington

I Dreamt of a Broken Bird by Ciarán Parkes

On a Theme From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Mark J. Mitchell

Forms and Forming by Richard Wakefield

Saturday morning by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

Onset by Max Gutmann

Thank you to my fellow judges, Tom Merrill, Mike Burch, and Sally Thomas for the monumental job of reading well over 900 sonnets! The sonnets were read, and all choices made, blind. — Vera Ignatowitsch

Three winners and seven honorable mentions will be announced from the following 45 shortlisted sonnets:

Sonnet For Her Husband by Max Gutmann

I Dreamt of a Broken Bird by Ciarán Parkes

The Rule by Michael Stalcup

Last Call by Kit Rohrbach

To the Person Who will be the Last to Speak My Name by David Rosenthal

In Living Color by John Beaton

A sackful of heads by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

James Holman by Timothy Sandefur
The Miller’s Daughter Gives an Exclusive on Rumpelstiltskin by Melissa Balmain

The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian

Disremembered by Lee Nash

Forms and Forming by Richard Wakefield

Drystone by Jane Boxall

Onset by Max Gutmann

The Point of No Return by Beatriz F. Fernandez

Forms and Forming by Richard Wakefield

Something That Was Once Lovely by Carlene M. Gadapee

Saturday morning by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

Obviously by Hibah Shabkhez

Made of Gauze by Donald Zirilli

Museum of a Former Marriage by Jennifer Davis Michael

Release by Tim Taylor

After Mom, Pop, and Older Sis Left the Circus by Devon Balwit

Ornithology and its Discontents by Enriqueta Carrington

Asylum for Joshua by Maroula Blades

The Assumption (Mary speaks) by Conor Kelly

Paper Town by Midge Goldberg

Viparinama by Terence Culleton

Street Dreams by Linda Banks

The end by Steve Lang

Salvage by Catherine Chandler

Sonnet for a 25th Wedding Anniversary by Carolyn Martin

For Trevion in the Local News byBarbara Loots

Vampire by Daniel Ranson

Metal on Metal by Elizabeth Faris

Sonnet for a Homeless Woman Named Beth by Debbie Hall

Winning by Daniel Ranson

Erasure Sonnet by Martin Cossio

Winter Ravens by Matthew King

Pigeon by Catherine Edmunds

Using Our Words by Brett Mertins

On a Theme From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Mark J. Mitchell

Shoes by Andrew Kuck

Tree by John W. Steele

Bones by Mark McDonnell

Another Love Poem by Melissa Balmain

We are delighted to announce that one of our supporters (who wishes to remain anonymous) has added $250 to our First Prize total this year.
As a result the First Prize will be $350 payable on publication.

Submissions for our third annual sonnet contest are now open!

September 30th through November 30th, 2020.

Winners will be published February 1st, 2021.

Please read the submission guidelines below.

Better Than Starbucks 2020 Sonnet Contest

Winning poets receive:

First Place $350.

Second Place $100.

Third Place $50.

Submissions open September 30th and close November 30th, 2020.

Winners will be announced in January and published on February 1st, 2021.

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.

If you do not receive an acknowledgement then we did not receive your entry. Check your spam folder if you have not already whitelisted Better Than Starbucks. Check the email address your entry was addressed to. Try again.

Entries are read blind. The poems alone are copied into reading files as they come in. Address your entry only to Better Than Starbucks editors.

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 the 2019 winning sonnets and honorable mentions in our January 2020 issue here.

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

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.

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

We look forward to reading your entries!

All entries are eligible for publication in Better Than Starbucks.

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.