POETRY WITH PURPOSE: A CONTEST

The Monadnock Writers’ Group, in collaboration with the Crotched Mountain Foundation, seeks an original poem to honor the memory of people with disabilities and those who have served them. The winning entry will be permanently installed in the Memorial Garden located at the base of the accessible trails on Crotched Mountain. The trails leading from the Memorial Garden include a boardwalk though woods and wetland as well as a gentle climb to views of seasonal flowering fields and distant mountains.

The Crotched Mountain Foundation (cmf.org) works toward the goal of helping children, students, and adults with disabilities to live, learn, and thrive in the community. Their programs include Crotched Mountain Community Care case management services for seniors and adults with disabilities, chronic illness, and needs related to aging throughout New Hampshire, community-based residential living options, innovative day programming for people with disabilities, affordable HUD housing for adults, accessible hiking trails, and CMF Kids, which supports  community-based special education programming in local school districts.

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Submission requirements

The poetry entries must:
• honor the memory of people with disabilities and those who have served them,
• be 12-18 lines in length,
• be unpublished,
• be submitted by the author,
• limited to one submission per poet,
• include the author's name and contact information, and
• use disability-sensitive language.
The contest is open to poets, regardless of membership in MWG.

Guidance on writing about people with disabilities is available from the Americans
with Disabilities Act National Network.
https://adata.org/sites/adata.org/files/files/Writing%20about%20People%20with%20Disabilities
%2C%20final%202018(2).pdf

Selecting the winning poem

The judge for this contest is Henry Walters. His poems, translations, reviews, and essays have appeared in periodicals such as The Threepenny Review, The Yale Review, Orion,
Literary Imagination, and New Letters.
His first book was a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award; his second was a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. He lives in New Hampshire with his young family, a hive of bees, and a hawk. Henry is not a member of the Monadnock Writers’ Group and he will not be given
any information about the poets making submissions.

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Submission process

• Entries must be sent to:

Monadnock Writers’ Group
PO Box 3071
Peterborough NH 03458
or to
monadnockwriters@gmail.com

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• Entries must be received by the Monadnock Writers’ Group no later than July 11, 2026. The winner will be announced on July 25, 2026.

• There is no entry fee.

• Please send any questions you have about the contest to:

monadnockwriters@gmail.com.