The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize

Contest / EligibilityDeadlineCategory  
The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry PrizeTBAPoetry  

The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize was established by friends of Ina Coolbrith, former Poet Laureate of California. The competition is designed to encourage the artistic development of student poets.  Local winners are forwarded to the statewide contest. On the State level, cash prizes totaling $500 will be awarded and divided at the discretion of the judges. Awards are made for the best unpublished poem or group of poems by an undergraduate student at the system-wide University of California campuses, University of the Pacific, Mills College, Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and St. Mary's College.  Each participating campus may submit THREE ENTRIES selected from the submissions at their campus. All entries, including those from the judging campus, are forwarded to UC Berkeley.  Winning manuscripts are filed in the University Archives at the Bancroft Library on the Berkeley campus.

Submitted poems must be typewritten, original, and unpublished. You may enter as many poems as you wish, but each poem should have its own title. Since submissions will not be returned, a copy should be retained.  Please limit entries to 15 pages or less. Do not put your name on the poem(s).  

On the front of each page submitted, in the upper right-hand corner write:

  • The last four digits of your student identification number (SID)
  • Name of contest
  • The number of pages of your submission (per poem)

Each submission must be accompanied by a separate cover page with the following information:

  • Entrant’s name
  • Local address
  • Permanent address
  • Phone number
  • UCD Email address
  • Major
  • Complete SID
  • Contest name
  • Title(s) of poem(s)

  • Number of pages (total of all pages submitted

     

The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize is closed. Submissions are not being collected at this time. 

Please check back Fall 2025.