Poetry Contest

Competition Details

Tactus announces a poetry competition for our upcoming concerts on the theme of "Determination and Destiny" on January 19 and 20 in the San Francisco Bay Area! The top two entries will receive a first prize of $75 and second prize of $50.

Winners Announced!

Tactus thanks all the contestants who submitted poems, and extends our congratulations to the top three winners selected by a group of four members of the choir! Come to our concerts in January to hear these poems performed between our pieces.
  1. "Hope and Hunger" by Tom Ayres
  2. "The Chameleon and the Phoenix" by Eva Schlesinger
  3. Haiku by Anthony Martin

Submission Guidelines
  1. All poems must be original works by the entrant. Submissions may have been previously performed in public, but must not have been published elsewhere. A certificate to this effect is required along with the submission (see Submission Checklist and Certification below).
  2. Poems can be rhyming or free-form, but must conform to our concert theme of "Determination and Destiny." Details of the concert theme and the music are available on our website here.
  3. Poems in any language are welcome. If writing in a language other than English, please provide a translation.
  4. A maximum of one entry per poet.
  5. Three prize-winning entries will be selected by a committee comprising members of the choir for live performance on January 19 and 20 as part of the Tactus concert "Determination and Destiny." The top two entries will receive prizes of $75 and $50, respectively. Tactus reserves the right to award fewer prizes than advertised, depending on the quality of submissions received.
  6. The authors of the winning entries will be invited to the concerts to perform the poems themselves. No reimbursement will be provided for travel associated with attending our concerts, but publicity for the authors will be offered via our website, tactus-sf.org, and our Facebook page, facebook.com/TactusSanFrancisco.
  7. Submission Deadline: 11.59 pm US Pacific Time on December 14, 2018
Submission Checklist
To submit a poem to our poetry contest, email a single PDF of your entry to tactussf@gmail.com by the deadline, comprising:
  1. Your poem
  2. Translation, if the poem is in a language other than English
  3. Certified statement that the submission is your original poem (text provided below).
  4. Optional: a reading of your poem (in mp3 or other compressed audio format). This is encouraged if your poem is in a language other than English. The reading will not be used in the performance directly.
Please include the following statement in the PDF at the end of your submission.

I agree to the terms of the Tactus poetry contest for "Determination and Destiny." I hereby certify that my submitted entry is entirely my own work, and has not been previously published elsewhere. If my entry is selected, this poem may be read at the Tactus concerts on January 19 and 20, 2019.

For any queries, please contact the directors at tactussf@gmail.com.