sponsored by Dr. Kamal Malaker
The Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition 2026 will open from January 05 to March 16, 2026 – EXTENDED TO MARCH 23, 2026.
Tagore’s works often celebrated journeys and their challenges. This year’s theme is “A Tumultuous Journey with a Bright Horizon”.
Submissions
All contestants must follow the complete submission guidelines below before submitting.
The Contest is open to all Manitoba Residents who are 18 years or older.
We collect an administration fee of $15 per submission.
We accept submissions only in English.
All submissions must be submitted online through the Manitoba Writers’ Guild’s website submission portal.
Prizes
The first-place winner receives $1000 CAD, the second-place winner receives $350 CAD, and the third-place winner receives $150 CAD.
We also give two honourable mentions to poems placed in fourth and fifth place.
The winning and honourable mentions poems are published on our website.
The Longlist, Shortlists, and Winners will be published in May 2026.
The Judges
All poems go through a first round of judges, who establish the longlist of poems that will go to the jury for the second round.
The lead judges decide the shortlist and winners.
The judging is blind; therefore, the writers’ names are known to the jurors and the public after all the judging rounds have been completed.
Jury 2026
Paul Morris
Ariel Gordon
Jane Hebden
Previous Winners
2025 Winners
1st Place: Sean Phillips for “Rhodesia”
2nd Place: Taryn Fenez for “1950, 1980, 2020”
3rd Place: Jennifer Tesoro for “Oh, Dear Cat Lady”
2025 Honourable Mentions
Julia Rempel for “Still”
Mitchell Toews for “ This Older Dude Over at Conchita’s Up North Main This Morning”
Need Help?
We are offering a Poetry Writing Workshop with Lise Gaboury-Diallo on February 07, 2026, at The ArtSpace.
Registration is Required.
Tagore’s works often celebrated dualities — the finite and the infinite. This year’s theme is A Tumultuous Journey With a Bright Horizon.
For this poetry contest, submissions are acccepted in English only.
Prizes
First Place
$1000 CAD
Second Place
$350 CAD
Third Place
$150 CAD
On June 6, 2025, the Manitoba Writers Guild Celebrated the Winners of the 2025 Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition.
- First place: “Rhodesia,” Sean Philips
- Second place: ”1950, 1980, 2020,” Taryn Fenez
- Third place: “Oh, Dear Cat Lady,” Jennifer Tesoro (T. J. Evangelista)
- Honourable mentions: “This Older Dude Over at Conchita’s Up North Main This Morning,” Mitchell Toews, and “Still,” Julia Rempel.
2025 Lead Judges
Lise Gaboury-Diallo
Lise Gaboury-Diallo est professeure titulaire au Département d’études françaises de langue et de littérature à l’Université de Saint-Boniface, où elle enseigne des cours de littérature et de création. Elle est également autrice et membre active de l’Association des auteur.e.s du Manitoba français. Au fil des ans, elle a publié divers types de textes, notamment des livres de poésie et des recueils de nouvelles.
Elle travaille actuellement sur une pièce de théâtre. Elle a remporté le premier prix de poésie française du Concours Littéraire National de Radio-Canada, pour “Homestead” (2004), ainsi que le Prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault à trois reprises : en 2009 pour le recueil de poésie L’endroit et l’envers (2009), en 2011 pour le recueil de nouvelles Lointaines et en 2023 pour le recueil de poésie Petites Déviations.
Son texte “At the Edge” a été sélectionné pour le numéro spécial de Prairie Fire, 50 over 50 : Honouring Women Writers in Canada, Part 1, automne 2024.
Samir Kifah Georges
Samir Kifah Georges is a Lebanese-Canadian poet with over two decades of experience as a poet. His poetry collection, As I Write These Words, sparked his involvement in the Canadian grassroots poetry scene.
He is a board member and volunteer for a Canadian poetry publication and continues to explore the art of poetry through his personal writing. Having witnessed the transformative power of art firsthand, he is excited to share in this chapter of your poetic journey.
David Williamson
David Yerex Williamson is a poet and instructor living in Treaty V Territory (Norway House, MB). He is a member of The Writers Union of Canada, an associate of the League of Canadian Poets, and a board director for the Manitoba Writers’ Guild.
His poetry has appeared in The Dalhousie Review, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, and other magazines. His first literary appearance was a stage play produced at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival (Winnipeg Free Press’ Pick of the Fringe, 1993). David’s first full-length collection, Through Disassembled Houses of Perfect Stones, was published by At Bay Press in 2022 and nominated for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Best First Book Award at the 2023 Manitoba Book Awards.
David studied literature and cross-cultural education at the University of Manitoba, Brandon, and Laurentian Universities. He has taught rhetoric and composition, literature, and interpersonal communication at the college and university levels and presented at academic and national conferences on writing about identity, culture, and landscape. When not snowshoeing, cooking, or drawing, David cuts wood, shovels snow, and chases his dogs along the historic Nelson River.
Winners
1st Place (Tie):
Symphonie-de-survie
Nankafu Gisèle
Immigrant
Danie J Botha
2nd Place:
Green Windows
Jaya Brata Bose
3rd Place:
Mother Tongue
Hazel Aduna
Honourable Mentions
- Diaspora – Vindra Jain
- Being Born – Sarah Mercer
- A Grand Mother – Jennifer Tesoro
Judges
Sally Ito
I am a poet and translator living in Winnipeg. I’ve translated the Japanese children’s poetry of Misuzu Kaneko with co-translator Michiko Tsuboi for the book Are You an Echo: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko, and more recently have translated the 17th century Austrian devotional poet, Catharina Regina Von Greiffenberg with co-translators Joanne Epp and Sarah Klassen for the book Wonder-Work: Selected Sonnets of Catharina Regina Von Greiffenberg. I teach creative writing at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.
Yelani Peiris
I am a director on the board of Contemporary Verse 2 Inc, a first reader, a writer, and a volunteer to the arts. As a Sri Lankan poet living in so called “Winnipeg, Manitoba,” I am immersed in the narrative of diaspora on a daily basis. The multicultural story involves diverse experiences, and I need to engage in navigating the roles of settler and immigrant. I look forward to hearing your story.
Samir Kifah Georges
My name is Samir Kifah Georges, also known as Sam, a Lebanese Canadian poet with over two decades of experience as a poet. In my youth, I published a small collection of poetry titled ‘As I Write These Words’, sparking my involvement in the Canadian grassroots poetry scene. Currently, I serve as a board member and volunteer for a Canadian poetry publication and continue to explore the art of poetry through my personal writing. Having witnessed the transformative power of art firsthand, I am excited to share in this chapter of your poetic journey.
David Williamson
David Yerex Williamson is a poet and instructor living in Treaty V Territory (Norway House, Manitoba). He is a member of The Writers Union of Canada, an associate of the League of Canadian Poets, and a board director for the Manitoba Writers Guild. His poetry has appeared in The Dalhousie Review, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2 and other magazines. His first literary appearance was a stage play produced at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival (Winnipeg Free Press’ Pick of the Fringe, 1993). David’s first full length collection, Through Disassembled Houses of Perfect Stones, was published by At Bay Press in 2022 and nominated for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Best First Book Award at the 2023 Manitoba Book Awards.
David studied literature and cross-cultural education at University of Manitoba, Brandon and Laurentian Universities. He has taught rhetoric and composition, literature and interpersonal communication at the college and university level, and presented at academic and national conferences on writing about identity, culture and landscape.
When not snowshoeing, cooking or drawing, David cuts wood, shovels snow, and chases his dogs along the historic Nelson River.
Additional Judges
- Lise Gaboury-Diallo
- Zulfqar Hyder
- Paul Morris
- Sandy Pool
- Erin Weinberg
We actively encourage submissions from all writers aged 18+, including those with disabilities, mature writers, individuals from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, BIPOC, and other underrepresented communities.
Please be sure to follow these guidelines, as they are essential to ensure your poem is accepted and read.
- Submissions open January 05, 2026,
- Submissions close on March 16, 2026, at 11:59 CST.
- Submissions are open to residents of Manitoba.
- Submissions must:
- be written in English.
- have up to 50 lines of poetry maximum.
- written in Times New Roman and 12-point font.
- include page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the document and the poem title in the header of each page.
- Do not include any identifying information on the poem document.
- Have all the information requested in the competition form on the submission portal, including a title, followed by the line count, with no other identifying information. Please ensure that the title on the form matches exactly the title on the heading of the submitted poem.
- be submitted in .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt format. No other file types will be accepted.
- be original works by the entrant, i.e., written by the author. Poems generated by, written with, or influenced by AI will be disqualified. Using third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, or another person’s universe without written permission will result in disqualification.
- be previously unpublished and not under consideration by any other publication.
- Entrants may submit multiple poems separately to this contest. Up to 3 poems will be accepted per poet, provided they are each submitted independently.
- The judges’ decisions are final.
- All entries and payments must be submitted through the dedicated portal on the Manitoba Writers’ Guild website.
