Contest Judge: Rod Carlos Rodriguez

First Prize: $250

Second Prize: $150

Third Prize: $100

For the Rod Carlos Rodriguez Prize, submit your best poems on the theme of "pockets." 

Yes, pockets like those sewn into pants or bags or suitcases, but also pockets in any sense of the word. Pockets as a 

hollow in the earth or the cavities of a billiard table. Pockets of ore or gold. Pockets of time. Pockets as myth or

memory. Wax poetic on pockets of people or earth as a pocket of space. Consider pockets as

containers. Envelopes or seed pods. The warm pouch of a mama kangaroo. Pockets as keepers of

lint and frogs and hidden treasures. Interpret the theme broadly.

Submit up to three poems of any length and in any form, including hybrid forms, all in one document.  Left justify your poems in Times New Roman 12 pt. font, single spaced.  Please do not use any form of special formatting inside your document and do not include the submitter's name anywhere within the document or in the title, as submissions will be read blindly by the contest judge. 

We regret that we are unable to read simultaneous submissions.

Deadline for submission is August 1, 2026.

Winners will be announced and all accepted poems will be published in the fws: international journal of literature & art "pockets" issue (forthcoming, Fall 2026). We aim to publish the issue in early September.  Please do not query the status of your submission unless you have not received a note from us by Oct. 31, 2026.

Submit up to three poems (all in one file), or one 2,000 word (maximum) piece of prose, or one image. A music file is also acceptable. 

Work may be previously published but if so, please include acknowledgements. 

The hope of this anthology is to instill in the reader or viewer a sense of peace.

Please do not mistake this as an anti-war or resistance collection.

We are of the same mind as Mother Theresa who is reported to have declined an invitation to an anti-war rally, saying, give a peace rally and I will be there.

So anything goes, really. Make us smile.  Open our hearts. Show us beauty. Remind us what it means to be good humans. Read the seed poem by Spirit Thom.  You'll get the idea.

Format work in a Word doc or docx, Times New Roman font size 12 without any additional embellishments. Send images that are sized for appearance on a website (so not huge files).

We regret that we are unable to read simultaneous submissions, so please only send what you submit to us.

Work will be published as it is accepted on a rolling basis and will appear as part of the fws: peace issue.  There is no deadline.

Please contact me directly if the $3 reading fee is an obstacle. 

Namaste,

d. ellis phelps, editor