The Pawtucket Arts and Culture Commission announces the reinstatement of the Galway Kinnell Poetry Contest in memory of Pawtucket poet, Galway Kinnell.

Open to New England poets, submit up to three pages of poetry c/o Patti McAlpine, Contest Coordinator P.O. Box 9206, Pawtucket, RI 02862. Deadline: August 1, 2015.

Sponsored by the Pawtucket Arts Festival,  three winning poets will read winning poems at a Poetry Celebration event of the Pawtucket Arts Festival on Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 2 p.m. along with Rhode Island state poet laureates: Rick Benjamin, current state poet laureate; Lisa Starr, recent state poet laureate emerita and Tom Chandler, state poet laureate emeritus. Benjamin, Starr and Chandler will also serve as the contest judges.

Born in Providence, RI, Galway Kinnell was raised in Pawtucket, RI. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1983, awarded a National Book Award and was recipient of a McArthur Fellowship. He served as F.B. Morse Professor of Arts and Sciences at New York University and was Vermont’s state poet laureate. He passed away on October 28, 2014.

The Galway Kinnell Poetry contest originated in 1985 by the Pawtucket Arts Council but has been dormant since 2002. It is with great honor that Pawtucket Arts and Culture Commission along with the Pawtucket Arts Festival reinstate this contest as a memoriam to one of New England’s  and Pawtucket’s most outstanding poets.

For more information, please contact Patti McAlpine, Contest Coordinator at 401-996-8678, e-mail at mcalpine.patti@gmail.com or visit http://www.galwaykinnellpoetrycontest.WordPress.com