Portent Contest 2024: Poetry

Deadline:

October 15, 2024

The 2025 Portent Prize is for the best work of poetry.

Portal invites 2000-word entries from Canadian authors across the country for its annual Portent Contest, with the genre rotating each year among non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and script. 

The winner is decided each winter by a 20-person jury and awards an annual prize of $500 CDN as well as publication in the April issue the following spring.

The entry fee is $25 CDN and all entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Portal

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  • Entries must not have been previously published in print or online in a newspaper, magazine, anthology, chapbook, book, website/blog, or on social media.
  • One entry per person in the genres of non-fiction, fiction, and script, but up to 3 poems for poetry.
  • The entry should not exceed 2,000 words.
  • Include only the title and word count on the first page of the submission (no names or addresses).
  • For prose, please double space your work.
  • Please use Word Document format (.doc or .docx).

HOW TO ENTER

Step 1
Submit your work via email to viuportal [at] gmail.com.
In the body of your email, include your:

  • full name
  • mailing address
  • email address
  • entry title
  • word count

Step 2
Provide payment for your $25 entry fee through the VIU Foundation website.

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The winner will be notified via email and announced on Portal’s website and social media. The winner will also be interviewed for the Portal website.

Past Winners include:

Flynn Connolly Sifton—Fiction, 2024 “It Leaves an Impression”
Rachel Davidson—Non-fiction, 2023 “Free and Hard”
Sarah Stirling—Script, 2022 “Be My Neighbour”
Sabrina Mudryk—Poetry, 2021 “They Are Waiting”
Rose McQuirter—Fiction, 2020 “Bump and Strike”
Zach Cooper—Non-fiction, 2019 “On Your Left”