The Southern Collective Experience, home of quarterly literary magazine The Blue Mountain Review, launched a “women only” poetry chapbook contest this past November.

The Women of Resilience Chapbook Contest’s goal is “to highlight not only the struggle, but a way to the light” as “time and again, women have shown tremendous resilience while overcoming hardship, be it personal, marital, financial, parental, medical, addiction, and personal self worth. In fact, the caverns women navigate to ‘find the light’ are often deep, and brutal.”

The deadline to enter the contest is March 31 with winners announced on April 15. First prize is $200 and chapbook publication. The winner will be interviewed in the Summer 2020 issue of The Blue Mountain Review. There is a $25 fee.

The judge of this year’s contest is Melissa Studdard, author of four books including I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and Six Weeks to Yehidah.