Never a Contest is a substack email newsletter and online promotion project to showcase poets who have not yet won a literary contest or published a full-length book or chapbook. Each monthly publication is curated by poet, writer, and musician Brandon North and features poems previously published by one writer, drawn from literary magazines and journals. You can subscribe for free or read past features to see what he is looking for.

For more information on Never a Contest, see my interview with creator Brandon North and a link to submission guidelines below.

HOPKINSON: Tell me a little bit about Never a Contest.

NORTH: Never a Contest is a curatorial newsletter. Each issue features the poetry of a writer who is relatively unknown, meaning they haven’t published any books or won a contest or competitive fellowship. I write a critical introduction to someone’s previously published poems and try to consider this work against the backdrop of the current “contest model” for poetry publishing in small presses, which publish the majority of collections of poems.

HOPKINSON: How/why was Literary Mama originally started?

NORTH: Due to my dissatisfaction with the hierarchies created in the writing world based upon winning contests, fellowships and awards, I wanted to create a space where poets could have more of their work appreciated without running the metaphorical gauntlet often required to publish even a chapbook. Instead of asking poets to be cudgeled (often by other poets, sadly) because of a lack of money, luck, connections, or the time to boost themselves online as they try to survive long enough to have their work noticed, I wondered whether it would be better if we as a literary community just appreciated the poets around us more immediately, even if that recognition is more transient. What I hope Never a Contest shows is that it is more rewarding in the long term to exalt good poetry not for clout (which often leads to hero worship or nepotism or even abusive relationships) but instead for the ways it gives us back to ourselves. That’s what a good community does for us, in general, I think.

HOPKINSON: Who is your target reader audience?

NORTH: Anyone who wants to read American poets who are overlooked or under seen (which is so many, lots of average people don’t read poems at all). But as far as who I think is most likely to enjoy my newsletter early on in it’s life, I’d say other writers, critics, editors, and publishers who are looking to participate in creating alternatives to the current models of publishing poetry. After all, I’m just one person and I surely have limitations. Ideally, Never a Contest will inspire others to do far more in the long run than I ever could.

HOPKINSON: What type of work are you looking for?

NORTH: A group of someone’s previously published poems that cohere in some way, whether by form, theme, voice, etc.

HOPKINSON: What do you wish you’d see submitted, but rarely comes in?

NORTH: More poetry that is conscious of / deals with class issues. In my experience, the literary world and especially the poetry world in the US (at least) is very blind to class. This is almost a feature, I’d argue, of how it operates. There are good efforts here and there but as a whole it seems that most poets in power will look at you sideways for declaring that not every poet, by virtue of writing poetry, is middle class. Despite the growing evidence of things like adjunctifacation, I have been, like many others, met with lots of resistance when trying to express my identity as a working class person.

HOPKINSON: What are some of your favorite lit mags/journals?

NORTH: Ghost Proposal, Speculative Nonfiction,  Gordon Square Review, Guernica, Oxford American, The Kenyon Review. 

HOPKINSON: What is your favorite part of being on staff with Never a Contest?

NORTH: Well, I’m the only staff at the moment! But my favorite part is getting to dig into someone’s poems deeply. I’ve always been a deep rather than wide reader, and to get to focus on a few poems at a time makes me realize what I enjoy most about literature, which is that any kind of writing is only half done when published. Readers make the writing complete, which is why most writers deeply desire to have their work read. To unabashedly quote Whitman: “For there to be great poets, there must be great audiences too.”

HOPKINSON: Where can we send submissions?

NORTH: To neveracontestsubmissions@gmail.com.

HOPKINSON: If someone has a question, how can they contact you?

NORTH: They can email the submissions gmail or DM me on twitter @neveracontest.

Click here to read submission guidelines.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Rolling

FORMAT: Substack email newsletter, issues also live online

SUBMISSION FEE: None

PAYMENT: No payment, but an introduction to your work will be written if chosen for an issue

SUBMISSION METHOD: Email

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: Yes

FORMS: poetry

SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter

If you like this post, please share with your writerly friends and/or  follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can see all the FREE resources my site offers poets/writers on my Start Here page.