First Light Fall 2026 Poetry Contest (#3)
Contest Judge
Contest Judge: Heather N. Sager
Heather Sager is an author living in northern Illinois. She has loved poetry since she was young, growing up in a rural Minnesota farm community when her grandfather recited poetry to her. She went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for her English degree. A nature enthusiast and mom, Heather has also worked for tech companies in the past.
Heather’s poems, flash fiction, and short stories have appeared in a multitude of literary journals. Some of her more recent poems appear in the print or digital pages of Chiron Review, Does It Have Pockets, Hiram Poetry Review, Bending Genres, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, SLAB, Tipton Poetry Journal, First Light Journal, and more. Heather won the A.A. Chida Award for her poem “An apartment building in the rain,” published in First Light Journal’s debut issue. soon
Deadline
Sep 14, 2026
Entry Fee
- There is no entry fee.
All contest submissions are automatically considered for publication in First Light Journal Issue #3.
Eligibility & Guidelines
IMPORTANT: All submissions must be the original works of the contributors and must not be published elsewhere. Our editorial team will have the final say regarding the acceptance/rejection of any entry. Entries with profanity-laced language and themes are unlikely to be selected for publication.
- Your submission can have up to three poems.
- Only one submission per contestant (3 poems)
- Contestants must be at least 13 years old to participate.
- Friends (those in close and constant association with the judge), relatives and current/former students of the judge are not eligible to enter the contest. The only exception is if submission bears a timestamp prior to the date we assigned a judge to the contest.
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizewinners from the Spring 2026 poetry contest are not eligible to enter. We would love to see entries from you in the next contest (#4). You may still submit entries to be published in Issue #3 of FLJ.
- Poems must be the original work(s) of the author.
- Poems submitted must not be previously published in another journal.
- Poems must be no more than 40 lines, including the title, tag line and empty lines between stanzas.
How to Submit
We recommend using our contest submission form to minimize errors.
Submit by E-mail
If you prefer entering by email, please pay close attention to the following.
- All poems can be typed up in a single Word document.
- Type each poem on a new page.
- Give each poem a title if it has one. If no title is provided, we will use the first line of the poem as its title.
- DO NOT include your name in the document containing your poems.
- Include your full name or preferred pseudonym in the body of the email.
- Include a brief biography (2 – 3 lines) in the body of the email that will be published with your poem if it is selected.
- Email your submissions in a Word/PDF document to submissions@starboard.press with the subject line: First Light Fall 2026 Poetry Contest.
Prizes
- Cash prize of $100 for the First Place winner with certificate of award
- Second place winner will receive $50 with certificate of award
- Third place winner will receive $30 with certificate of award
- Additional poems may be selected as Honorable Mentions
- All submissions are automatically considered for publication in the 2026 Fall issue of First Light Journal. Winning entries will be highlighted.
Results
- Results will be available in mid-October 2026
- Authors of winning entries will be notified by email