| 31st Annual Poetry Ink We want you all: published poets, unpublished poets, academic poets, street poets, poets who write Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Ekphrastic Poems, Concrete Poems, Epitaph, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ballad, Ode, Free Verse. Join us for our 31st year of presenting 100 poets reading in alphabetical order. Deadline: October 11th LIVE Event: November 14th @ 2pm (Philadelphia Free Library, Parkway Center) |
Winner will receive
- $500 cash prize
- Publication and 25 copies of the book*
- Promotion on our website
- Reading at one of our venues in Philadelphia (or virtual reading, if preferred)
- Deadline: November 1st, 2026
| Remembering Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) Dorothy Parker was an American poet, literary critic and writer of fiction. Based in New York, she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary works published in magazines, such as The New Yorker, and for her role as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. In the early 1930s, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in her being placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a “wisecracker”. Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. Some of her works have been set to music. Deadline: July 26, 2026 Virtual Event: August 23, 2026 |
| National Book Lovers Day Book Lovers Day is celebrated on the 9th of August every year. This is an unofficial holiday observed to encourage bibliophiles to celebrate reading and literature. People are advised to put away their smartphones and every possible technological distraction and pick up a book to read. Book Lovers Day is widely recognized on global scale yet its origin and creator remain unknown to date. Deadline: July 12, 2026 Virtual Event: August 9, 2026 |
| Banned Books Week Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International, that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. Held in late September or early October since 1982, the United States campaign “stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them” and the requirement to keep material publicly available so that people can develop their own conclusions and opinions. The international campaign notes individuals “persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read.” Some of the events that occur during Banned Book Week are The Virtual Read-Out and The First Amendment Film Festival. Deadline: Aug 30, 2026 Virtual Event: Sept 20, 2026 |
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| Black Poetry Day Black Poetry Day is celebrated every year on October 17 to honor all the talented African American poets, both past and present. If you’re a literature enthusiast, poet, or writer — no matter your race — you’ll absolutely love Black Poetry Day where you can celebrate black heritage and history. Black Poetry Day is celebrated in commemoration of the birth of the man popularly referred to as the father of African American literature, Jupiter Hammon, the first published black poet in the United States of America. Black Poetry Day is a day to recognize the contributions of black poets to literature and celebrate the black experience as retold in poetry. In light of June Jordan’s birthday, we encourage submissions inspired by her work and poetry. Previous submissions from our June Jordan anthology will be included as well. Deadline: September 20, 2026 Virtual Event: October 18, 2026 |
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| Veterans/Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. A formal peace agreement was reached only when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. Deadline: Oct 11, 2026 Virtual Event: Nov 8, 2026 |
| Winter Solstice The winter solstice occurs when either of Earth’s poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, and when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. Each polar region experiences continuous darkness or twilight around its winter solstice. The opposite event is the summer solstice. Deadline: Nov 22, 2026 Virtual Event: Dec 20, 2026 |