Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the Poetry Ark?
- The Poetry Ark, LLC is the home of a one-year, online competition that relies on the votes of you, our site visitors, to select the top 100 poems for publication and to determine the winners of six Poetry Ark prizes. For more detailed information about the process, please visit the About section of the website. To learn more about our prizes, please visit the Poetry Ark Prize section.
- Who created the Poetry Ark?
- The Poetry Ark is the undertaking and obsession of our Editor-in-Chief, William Keens. With strategic insight and technical support from the Brooklyn-based media firm Brooklyn Digital Foundry, Keens' vision has become a reality.
- Is there a fee for participation?
- There is no fee for participation. While not every poem submitted can be published online, our editors will do their best to review and present as many worthy poems as possible, without charging a penny. We feel this approach shows our devotion to the poetry we present, and encourages the cultivation of a broad and varied community of poets and readers.
- Do I get paid for my work?
- For poems that make it to the Current Rounds and Qualifying Rounds, we can offer the thrill of the chase, the company of colleagues, and a discounted copy of the Poetry Ark Anthology. For the 100 finalists, we can offer publication in the Anthology and a shot at over $2,000 in cash prizes. And for the three winning poems, we offer the prizes themselves.
- How can I submit a poem?
- First and foremost, you must be a registered user in order to submit a poem to the Poetry Ark. You may submit poems by clicking here or on any of the Submit Poems buttons you see throughout our website. Please review the Submission Guidelines carefully before submitting work. We have a small staff, so spending our time on improperly submitted or ineligible work dilutes the attention we can give to others.
- What if I incorrectly submitted a poem?
- Once a poem is submitted it is not editable by the submitter. We will, however, accept minor edits via email should you realize a spelling or punctuation error in your submission. Please send a clear explanation of your edit(s) and a link to your poem from the email address associated the account used to submit the poem, to edits@poetryark.org.
- What is the purpose of nominating work?
- Nomination is a way for our readers to engage the submission process. If you have a favorite poem (by a living author and written in English) you may nominate it for inclusion in the competition, even though you are not the author, publisher, or copyright holder. Our editors will review the poem and, if appropriate, will attempt to reach the poet and encourage their participation via the Poetry Ark website. Of course, you are also free to contact authors yourselves.
- What do I gain from registration?
- Registration is the key to participation. By registering, you gain access to our submission and voting functions, as well as a nifty Personal Page section that aggregates your activity on the site to save you time and keep you reading and voting.
- How can I share this awesome site and these great poems with my peers?
- There are a host of ways you can do this, from emailing poems to friends to Tweeting or Facebook-posting poems. Just look for the Share area to the right of any poem, just below the voting functions.
- What does the word "Rounds" signify? I seem to see it everywhere.
- Our process is divided into a series of stages, which we call Rounds. The first stage is the Current Rounds, which are open for voting for 2 weeks each. When a Current Round closes to voting, it joins the Previous Rounds, where you, our readers, can still see what it contains and which poems advanced. After the final Current Round, our Qualifying Round launches, featuring the top poems from all of the Rounds to date. The top 100 vote-getting poems in the Qualifying Round are selected for publication in the Poetry Ark Anthology, and advance to our Prize Round. From these 100 poems our audience will help select the winners of the Poetry Ark Prizes.
- What is the role of the Poetry Ark editors?
- Our editors are the first line of review for the website. If we published every poem we received, our readers could never keep up with the volume. While we are devout believers in the power of democracy, we also recognize the limits of human stamina. To maintain the integrity of the process, our editors review every poem that comes in, selecting the finest for the Current Rounds, the first tier of the voting process. After a poem has made it into a Current Round, it’s on its own and up to you to advance those you like.
- How will I be contacted if I win a monetary prize or a place in the Poetry Ark Anthology?
- Winners of prizes and those who qualify for the Poetry Ark Anthology will be notified by an email sent to the address supplied at the time of registration.
- How will I be paid if I win a monetary prize?
- Winners will receive a check from the Poetry Ark, LLC.
- Can I be the author of more than one winning poem?
- In the interest of promoting the widest possible selection of work, if the same author stands to win more than one of our prizes, that author will be awarded the higher value prize only and the next most highly rated poem will advance accordingly. Publishers may win more than one publisher’s prize.
- Can I nominate the work of a famous poet?
- You may nominate anyone you like, providing that they are living and writing in English. (It helps a great deal if you have their contact information.) Again, our editors will make every effort to contact the authors, publishers, or other copyright holders of nominated poems deemed appropriate. That is true regardless of the stature of the author.
- Can I nominate poems by poets living outside the United States?
- Yes, see the previous answer. Stature, location, age — we do not discriminate provided the poem is written in English and the work of a living author. (No translations please.)
- Can I submit the same poem to more than one round?
- Yes. To be honest, this is really only a good idea if your poem appears on our site and doesn’t advance from its round. In this event, re-submission of the same poem gives our voters another chance to recognize the value of the work (in case you were up against a particularly strong round the first time). If your poem did not make it through the initial screening by our editors and does not appear on our site, please don’t resubmit, as we have either not yet reviewed your poem or have determined we will not advance it to a Current Round.
- Do poems retain their scores from Previous Rounds as they advance to the Qualifying Round and the Prize Round?
- No they do not. Each round is a clean slate so the poems in that round may be compared more equitably.
- How will the Poetry Ark check for plagiarized work?
- The Poetry Ark has a four-pronged approach to potential plagiarism. 1. We rely on the honesty and integrity of those making submissions. 2. We have a large, attentive readership. 3. We have well-read editors. 4. We have the magic of technology on our side—just look at this website!
- What is the Poetry Ark Anthology; where and when can I get one?
- The Poetry Ark Anthology will be a collection of the best 100 poems (as chosen by your votes). Every poem that advances from the Qualifying Round to the Prize Round will be featured in the Poetry Ark Anthology. The anthology will be produced in early 2011, and we will update this website with ordering information when the time comes.
- What is the last possible date that I can submit a poem?
- October 15, 2010. But why wait?