National Poetry Month is held every year throughout the month of April. Initially launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, this annual event is the largest literary celebration in the world, highlighting the legacy and ongoing achievements of writers across the nation, while encouraging and supporting poets.
In our little corner of the world, specifically on Shelter Island, there’s the annual Bliss Morehead Poetry Grant, an East End-wide poetry contest geared toward unpublished poets with this year’s theme being “War and Peace.” Named in honor of the late poet, curator and Shelter Island resident, the grant was initiated in 2021 by Morehead’s husband, Mike Zisser, in memory of his wife.
A patron of the library for many years, says Shelter Island Public Library director Terry Lucas, “every April she would run a poetry program here at the library, where she would curate poems and get readers. So, when she passed away, her husband came in, and he, with some friends, wanted to establish a grant for poetry. We got a committee together and he came up with wanting to give $1,000 grants to a poet each year.”
The rules for submitting a poem to the contest are simple: first, all applicants must be at least 17 years old and live on the East End (from Riverhead to points east, on both the South and North forks). A panel of three judges reviews all submissions before they come up with one winner and two honorable mentions. In April, the library hosts a ceremony where the winner receives their prize money (a $1,000 check) and they also have an opportunity to read their poems.
The deadline for poem submissions is Friday, March 20. Winners will be announced on April 10 and there’ll be poetry readings on April 30 at the library.
Since its inception, the grant has seen about 250 submissions from folks of all ages with winners named from across the East End. “That first year it was little bit Shelter Island oriented, but it’s really broken out since then,” Lucas says, “and we’re thrilled because that’s what I think Bliss would have wanted. It’s encouraging new poets, and it’s really a lovely thing.”
To submit your poem and for more information click here. Shelter Island Library is located at 37 North Ferry Road, 631-749-0042.
