Contest opens Jan. 6, 2025!
Welcome to the 2nd annual Manitoba Writers’ Guild Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Competition, sponsored by Dr. Kamal Malaker.
Tagore’s works often celebrated dualities — the finite and the infinite. This year’s theme is Hybrid Identity: how we negotiate our multiple upbringings to fit the spaces in between. This can be culture, class, gender, race, or nation.
Can you relate? If any part of this strikes a chord, we hope this competition encourages you to explore and express your unique combinations.
Ce concours de poésie accepte les poèmes en français et en anglais / For this poetry contest, we are accepting submissions in English and in French.
Prizes
First Place
$500 CAD
Second Place
$250 CAD
Third Place
$100 CAD
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.
Please be sure to follow these guidelines as every one of them is important to ensure your story is accepted and read.
We actively encourage submissions from all writers who are 18+ years of age, including writers with disabilities, writers in the 2SLGTBQIA+ communities, BIPOC writers, mature writers, and other under-represented communities.
- Submissions open Jan. 6, 2025.
- Submissions close March 31, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CST.
- Open to persons residing in Manitoba.
- Poems may have up to 50 lines maximum.
- Submissions must be formatted in Times New Roman and 12-point font
- Include page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of your document with the poem title in the header of each page.
- This is a blind judging contest. Do not include any identifying information on the poem document.
- Your submission must include:
- Your poem with its title, followed by the line count, with no other identifying information.
- All information requested in the competition form on the website. Please ensure that the title of your entry exactly matches title on the front page of your submitted poem.
- Payment submitted through our website submission portal.
- No simultaneous submissions. However, each poet may submit up to 5 poems, provided they are each submitted separately. Entries must be previously unpublished and not under consideration by any other publication. Previously published includes both traditionally and self-published in print and e-format including all printed formats, ezines, blogs, online literature sites, and newsletters.
- All entries must be original works by the entrant. Entries must be organically created, that is, written by the author. Poems generated by, written with, or influenced by AI, will be disqualified. The use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification.
- Your document must be sent in .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt format. No other file types will be accepted.
- The judges’ decisions are final.
- All entries must be submitted through a dedicated portal on the Manitoba Writers’ Guild website.
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