7th Annual October Project Poetry Contest Runs Through April Is Poetry Month

Now in its 7th year, the October Project Poetry Contest, the international poetry contest co-founded by award-winning poet/lyricist Julie Flanders, vocalist Marina Belica and composer Emil Adler of internationally-acclaimed October Project Music, will be held again this April during National Poetry Month.

Flanders is the lyricist and co-founder of American Prize, Telly and Anthem Award-winning October Project, who are genre-defying recording artists, producers and musical activists who collaborate in the creation of musical recordings and events.

Powered by Flanders' words, Adler's music, and the group's trademark harmonies, their earlier work on Sony/Epic and subsequent recordings have been enjoyed by millions on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and YouTube. Their recordings have appeared on the Grammy ballot nine times, with their choral works performed by over 5000 singers nationwide and works by Flanders & Venezuelan composer Carlos Cordero performed at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall and by such esteemed choirs as Philadelphia's Mendelssohn Chorus, EXIGENCE, and the Yale Glee Club. Bridging the worlds of pop, classical, a cappella and choral, Flanders, Adler & Belica continue to innovate the landscape of independent music.

Flanders is also an Amazon#1 Best-Seller in poetry for each of her three collections, Watermarked, Shadow Breathing, and Joyride. For the last 10 years, Flanders has posted a new original poem on social media each day in April during National Poetry Month. She is also the originator of the hashtag #haikuTuesday, creating and encouraging posts of haikus every Tuesday, year-round, contributing an archive of hundreds of poems and haikus online.

The October Project Poetry Contest was launched in 2019 to encourage and support the art of poetry, attracting prize-winning, published and unpublished poets from the United States and abroad.

Judges this year are:

• Tom Toce | lead judge, award-winning theater and cabaret songwriter and President of the Board at New York's Urban Stages

• Kirsty Manning | best-selling Australian author of six historical novels, published in Australia, New Zealand, North America, UK, South Africa and translated into several languages

• Chiwenite Onyekwelu | award-winning, published Nigerian poet, winner of the 2024 Oxford University After the End poetry competition, winner of the 2023 Frederick Morgan Poetry Prize

• Lisken Van Pelt Dus | award-winning published poet and 4-time Nominee for the prestigious Pushcart Prize, winner of the 2024 October Project Poetry Contest

The 7th Annual October Project Poetry Contest will open this year on April 1st and continue through 11:59 PM EDT on April 30th. For more information and to enter, please visit the October Project Poetry Contest website.

ABOUT JULIE FLANDERS, POET/LYRICIST

With deceptively simple words, Flanders guides readers through the mysteries of the familiar to a deeper understanding of life and love, death and loss, miracles of perception, and the magic of the ordinary. Deeply satisfying, her poems are easily entered for a first read and richly reward repetition

Flanders is an Amazon #1 Best-Seller in Poetry for each of her three collections, Watermarked, Shadow Breathing, and Joyride. Following upon the success of her animated poem "Doubts," an Official Selection at 29 film festivals, she won a 2024 Bronze Telly in Writing for an experimental short of her poem, "The Big Sadness."

For the last 11 years, Flanders has posted a new original poem on social media each day in April during National Poetry Month, and co-founded the international poetry contest that has engaged poets and poems from all over the world. She is also the originator of the hashtag #haikuTuesday, creating and encouraging posts of haikus every Tuesday, year-round, contributing an archive of hundreds of poems and haikus online ever since.