2025 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest – Call for Entries
Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. Deadline for entries is June 1, 2025. The entry process is a one-step system. Sonnet(s) must be submitted with the Entry Form. Complete instructions for entering are available at sonnetcontest.org.
The Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest is an annual event that welcomes entries from around the world. Cash prizes, totaling over $3,000, will be awarded in several categories, including:
- Top Four Sonnets
- Regional (Four Winners – Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa)
- Best Youth (Four Winners – High School and Younger)
- Laureate’s Choice (Sixteen Winners)
There is a $5 FEE for up to three sonnets per entry. There is NO FEE for entrants in the Youth category (high school and younger) or for undergraduate college students.
Submissions should be made through our on-line process, with payment option by PayPal or check. If this process presents a hardship, instructions for entering by mail will be provided upon request. Just send us an email at entries@sonnetcontest.org.
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest!
The winners of the 2024 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest were announced at a hybrid in person / Zoom event held at the Winona County History Center on July 27, 2024. Many of the winners read their sonnets live over Zoom with the remaining sonnets being read by the Great River Shakespeare Festival’s Doug Scholz-Carlson and by contest judges Jim Armstrong, Ken McCullough, Emilio DeGrazia, and Leslie Schultz. The video of the celebration can be viewed at sonnetcontest.org/events.
The 2024 contest received entries from 10 countries and 40 states. Almost 650 sonnets were submitted by 180 individuals, including 68 in the youth category. Prizes totaling $3,200 were awarded in the following categories: Top Four, Regional (4), Youth (4), and Laureates’ Choice (16). The winning sonnets are published on the website at sonnetcontest.org/2024-winners.
TOP FOUR: Till Death Us Do Part – Barbara Loots (Kansas City, MO); Via Caio Cestio – Katharyn Howd Machan (Ithaca, NY); Snapshot – (Fort Collins, CO); and Saint Valentine’s – Sally Wilder David (Albuquerque, NM).
REGIONAL: Funeral Song for K.T. Yang – Sharon Hilberer (Minneapolis, MN); Durability – Scott Lowery (Milwaukee, WI); The Music of the Spheres – Marilyn Taylor (Madison, WI); and Aurora – Jim Togeas (Morris, MN).
YOUTH [high school and under]: To Speak Unique – Caroline Chen (Irvine, CA); A Visit From Felicity – Thaddeus Smilevski (Brooklyn, NY); Lonesome Summer Beauties – Laurynn Van Doren (Prescott Valley, AZ); and Journey to a Manhattan Bus Stop – Amy Wang (New York, NY).
LAUREATES’ CHOICE: In Which Ophelia Metaphysically Slays Her Father – Nancy Brewka-Clark (Beverly, MA); Demeter’s Dirge – Carissa Coane (Pasadena, CA); Franklin at the Northeast Passage – Manfred Dietrich (Branchton, Ontario, Canada); Close Reading – Frances Drayus (Los Angeles, CA); Forgetting a Name, I Search Through Old Emails – Midge Goldberg (Chester, NH); Can’t Bring Myself to Fix It – Michael Harty (Prairie Village, KS); Proposed Units, Phase Four, High Ashes – Ernest Hilbert (Philadelphia, PA); Hyoscyamus niger – Juleigh Howard-Hobson (Astoria, OR); The Prince Recalls His Days as Matchmaker – Tessa Li (Englewood Cliffs, NJ); First encounters with poetry – Steven Monte (New,York NY); Laika (November 3, 1957) – Marijane Osborn (Davis, CA); Sonnet for an Old Cat – Laura Plummer (Gloucester, MA); Shark Bites – Marybeth Rua-Larsen (Somerset, MA); The Invention of the Sword – Benjamin Cannicott Shavitz (New York, NY); Black Ice – David Southward (Milwaukee, WI); and The Sonnet of a Function – Xinyin Zhang (Chapel Hill, NC).
As always, you can learn more about the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest by visiting: sonnetcontest.org. Or send your questions to entries@sonnetcontest.org.
River Arts Alliance serves as fiscal sponsor of the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.