Poetry Parade at Gallery Vertigo Contest Guidelines

  1. Poetry will be presented at a spoken word event at Gallery Vertigo on November 22nd, 2025, 7-9 p.m. Winners are required to attend to read their winning work to an audience and display their written work at the gallery. Other participants are also encouraged to attend and read.
  2. Prizes are as follows: $100 for 1st; $50 for 2nd; $25 for 3rd.
  3. Entries will be accepted online between October 1st and 25th; no entries will be viewed after the October 25th deadline.
  4. Only one person writing one poem. Poems should be submitted using the form below.
  5. Each poem must be contained on one page, 35 lines maximum, written in English; the font must be 12 point font, Times New Roman. The author retains copyright but the Gallery reserves the 1st rights to display the work.
  6. Entry fee is $15. One submission only from each applicant. Instructions for submitting your fee are detailed after the entry form below.
  7. All entries will be read and a shortlist created. The judge will then read and determine the winning entries. The winners will be notified in advance of the reading so that they can plan to attend the November 22nd Poetry Parade at Gallery Vertigo.
  8. Theme is open. Poems containing vulgar, hateful, discriminatory, profane or otherwise offensive language may be disqualified at the discretion of the judge.
  9. Only original work will be accepted. This poem must not have been previously published, or accepted for publication, or have been a winner in a previous contest. If it was shared on the internet, it is considered published. AI generated work is disqualified.
  10. No text alterations will be allowed after the work is submitted.
  11. Members of the Gallery Vertigo administrative team are ineligible for the contest.
  12. Poems are judged on artistic impact and writing skill. The judge’s decision is final but he will be happy to explain his thinking.
  13. Eligible for Poets from: Vernon, Coldstream, Lumby, Armstrong, Enderby, Salmon Arm, and their outlying regions.
  14. Submission Deadline: Open from October 1, to October 25, 2025.

Entry Form

Each space below must be filled in completely.

    Agreements






    Attach Poem (Please use one of these filetypes: pdf, txt, doc, docx, rtf)

    Fee Submission

    The easiest way to get the fee to Gallery Vertigo is to do an e-transfer from your bank. Please specify “galleryvertigonoaa@gmail.com” as the transfer destination. If you are unable to do e-transfers, we can take the payment directly during opening hours. Please specify that this is for the poetry contest and what email address you used on the form above.

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