fischer prize
Welcome to the Fischer Prize A poetry award named for Mark and Elaine Fischer – two Colorado creatives and champions of the arts. Mark was a brilliant lawyer poet who died young, and Elaine his artist widow who went on to become Mayor of Telluride and a San Miguel County Commissioner for four terms (2000-2016). She passed away Memorial Day weekend 2016. Started in 1997, the Fischer Prize began with the Telluride Writers Guild, at the instigation of Art Goodtimes, was sustained for many years by the Telluride Council on the Arts & Humanities (which became Telluride Arts) and by Elaine Fischer, and most recently was re-energized and expanded by Goodtimes and the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program. What started as a county $100 award for local poets, moved to a statewide focus, then a regional Southwestern target audience, followed by a Western U.S. scan and has now widened its scope – making the awards available to poets in the entire country. The current prize award is $1000 for the winning poem plus a $500 travel reimbursement stipend for attending the awards ceremony. In addition, there are five finalist awards of $200 each with $100 travel reimbursement stipend. And this year, thanks to a generous donation from the Cantor Family, we will be initiating a $500 Cantor Award for the winning poem in the Fischer Prize contest from a Colorado poet. That way we will be honoring the Fischer with a national prize, as well as a state prize. This annual award is open to poets of all ages living in the US. Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2018, and the prize is awarded at the Telluride Literary Arts Festival in May 18th in Telluride, Colorado. For more information contact Olivia at [email protected] 2018 CONTEST: WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
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