In this installment of UC Berkeley’s Lunch Poems series, Aracelis Girmay begins with a reading of “Poem of Commitment” by June Jordan followed by a selection of poems from her collections The Black Maria (BOA Editions, 2016) and Green of All Heads (BOA Editions, 2025).
Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.