BUCKS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Search is on for the 49th Bucks County Poet Laureate

Entrants must be Bucks County residents over age 18 who have never previously served as poet laureate

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The search is on for the 49th Bucks County Poet Laureate, according to Bucks County Community College professor Ethel Rackin, director of the longest-running poet laureate program in Pennsylvania.

Entrants must be Bucks County residents over age 18 who have never previously served as poet laureate, explained Rackin, a language and literature professor at BCCC, which administers the program.

Each entrant must submit an entry form with 10 original poems of any style, form, or length to the college’s School of Language and Literature. Entries must be submitted online by Friday, Sept. 19.

The winner receives a $500 honorarium, a proclamation from the Bucks County Commissioners, and a reading and reception at Bucks County Community College with 2024 Poet Laureate Lake Angela, contest judges and contest runners-up.

Two judges will blindly select the winner. The preliminary judge will narrow the entries down to a few dozen for the final judge, who will choose the winner and three runners-up from the pool of finalists.

The 2025 final judge will be Jennifer Tseng, whose latest book, “Thanks for Letting Us Know You Are Alive,” poems made with her late father’s letters, won the Juniper Prize for Poetry. Her first book, “The Man with My Face,” won the AAWW’s National Manuscript Competition and a PEN American Open Book Award, while other books have won numerous awards and accolades. Her memoir-in-essays “Mixed Feelings” is forthcoming in 2026. Tseng is currently an associate professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Nicole Greaves, whose poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Cleaver magazine, Matter Poetry, American Poetry Review: Philly Edition, and Radar Poetry, will serve as preliminary judge. Her work has received recognition from the Academy of American Poets and the Leeway Foundation of Philadelphia. Greaves has been a finalist for several national prizes, and her work has also been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She was selected by Gregory Orr as the Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

There is no charge for entry. All work must be original and can be published or unpublished. All entries must be submitted online at www.bucks.edu/poetlaureateentry by Sept. 19.

For more information, contact Rackin at [email protected].



Wednesday, July 16, 2025
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