Performance Prize

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The Jaki Shelton Green Performance Poetry Prize

The Jaki Shelton Green Performance Poetry Prize competition is open to any writer who fits the NCLR definition of a North Carolina writer: anyone who currently lives in North Carolina, has lived in North Carolina, or uses North Carolina as subject matter. Poetry submissions do NOT have to relate to an issue’s special feature topic.

To read about the 2024 prize-winners, click here.

  • There is no submission fee, but poets must be either NCLR subscribers or members of the North Carolina Poetry Society to submit.
    • If you are both a NCPS member and an NCLR subscriber, you can submit two performance video recordings.
    • You can subscribe/join after submitting. Please do so by the contest deadline.
      • Members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association are considered NCLR subscribers.
    • Current ECU students and ECU English Department faculty are ineligible.
    • Due to the nature of a performance, submissions cannot be viewed entirely anonymously, so please be mindful of conflicts of interest—actual or perceived—with the final judge. If the year’s final judge feels he/she cannot be impartial to a submission, he/she has the right to disqualify it from prize consideration.
  • The performed poem must be an original composition and the author of the piece must be the performer.
    • The poem must have been written within the previous 5 years.
    • Performances of poems published in print form may be submitted but not performances that are available elsewhere.
    • The submitter must own the exclusive, transferable rights to all submission elements. This includes, but is not limited to, written text, audio, video, and images.
  • Performance is the critical component of this contest.
    • Sounds, instruments, or musical backgrounds are allowed to complement the delivery, but supplementary audios are neither required nor encouraged.
    • If you elect to use these elements, they should not distract from your delivery. No deduction or special consideration will be made if the contestant does or does not include a musical background. The overall quality of the performance will be paramount. The poetry may be delivered from memory or with a copy in hand; however, performance is the critical component of this contest.
  • Submit via this contest’s category on NCLR’s Submittable page between April 1-30, 2024.
    • Complete submission directions are provided within our Submittable site.
    • Only one poem/performance per video submission.
    • No more than 2 submissions per poet allowed (see above for more information about multiple submissions).
    • The length of each video must be under 5 minutes. Videos over 5 minutes will be disqualified.
    • File size may not exceed 40 MB. (We recommend filming at 720p, so your video is no larger than 30MB.)
    • If you have any difficulty uploading through Submittable, contact NCLR at NCLRStaff@ecu.edu for help uploading to a Dropbox or other such folder.

The final judge will choose the winning performance and other honorees from these finalists.

  • All who submit will receive notification of the competition results via Submittable within 3-4 months of the deadline.
  • The winning performance (and select finalists’) recordings will be uploaded to NCLR‘s Youtube channel and shared publicly via the NCLR Online Fall issue.
  • The winner and honorees may also be invited to showcase their performances in person at a North Carolina Poetry Society event.

Questions may be directed to Devra Thomas, Digital Editor or to NCLR staff.