Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I live in Australia (India, South Africa, etc). Am I able to enter this contest?
A. All Christians are able to enter all our contests, no matter where they live.
Q. Do my poems need to contain religious subject matter?
A. Not usually. Our contests are for poets who are Christian, but Christian poets are free to enter poems on the subjects of their choosing. The only exception is when the contest rules specifically require religious themes.
Q. Your entry fees mention US dollars and Canadian dollars, but I live in India (Saudi Arabia, Brazil, etc). How do I pay my fees?
A. Please pay in equivalent-to-USA dollars unless you are a Canadian citizen. Canadians may pay in Canadian dollars. (If you you live in the USA or Canada, you may pay with a money order, but please be sure it is an International money order.) We accept personal checks from Canada, USA, Great Britain and Australia. If you are in another country with a non-North American currency, we suggest you send currency (US cash is available almost anywhere) and enclose it with your entries—being certain to fold paper around the bills to hide them from detection.
Q. I submitted a poem to Poetry.com (or some other web site) and it was published on-line, but I was not paid for it. Can I enter this poem in your contest?
A. No. We require that your poem to be completely unpublished (on-line or in print) before being entered in our contest. This is true for all submissions to Utmost—to our contest or to our gallery. We do not accept published work.
Q. Do I lose copyright to my work if it wins a prize?
A. No. We reserve the right to post your poem on our web site, but that is our only right. All other rights—including the right to sell the work elsewhere—remain with the author.
Q. What happens to poems that do not win a prize?
A. They are destroyed immediately following the awarding of prizes. There is no reason for us to keep them.
Q. How many people enter the contest? What are my chances of winning?
A. From year to year the number of entries varies widely. We have never had more than 500 entries, but we have had as few as 65. Your chances of winning are related to the quality of your poetry, not to the number of entries. We expect fewer people to enter our Novice Poetry Contest (run annually from March 1 – August 31) because prizes are less, so if you are concerned about the number of contestants (and are unpublished) this contest might be for you.