(See more news: News from Pen Women and Branch News.)
Letter from the National President Nancy Avery Dafoe, Fall 2026
The Launch of a New Campaign
Launching a nationwide, NLAPW poetry competition for nonmembers is just the beginning for our League reaching further out into communities of creative women.
This campaign has a threefold intention: By offering a national competition to nonmembers, we hope to increase NLAPW membership in all our branches. Secondly, we know that this type of large competition will bring in needed funding for both our branches and National. Lastly, a far-reaching competition like this will highlight the NLAPW at the local and national levels and give us greater exposure for all of our endeavors and networking.
If successful (which we have every expectation it will be), the nonmember poetry competition may become a template to run a nonmember artist competition and a nonmember composer competition that will follow. We want to increase membership in all the genres, but we are beginning with poetry because I am most familiar with poetry competitions. We can tweak the art and music competitions as we learn and offer recognition as well as membership to nonmembers.
If the NLAPW is to continue to remain viable as our members age, it is necessary to encourage new membership, dynamics, and ideas. We are more than capable of making this expansion effort work if we all buy into the concept of moving forward. We would like to believe a NLAPW organization will be one for creative women to come together another one hundred years from now.
How Do We Make Such a Massive Effort Work?
A natural question to arise out of a national competition proposal is how do we make this work? The answer: National will provide all branches with the guidelines and rules for the competition. Then each branch will run its own local or regional competition, with branch Pen Women serving as local judges.
The number of winners from each branch (from one to three) will be the branch’s decision. Once each branch has named its top winners, those poets will receive $35 each in prize money, and they may have the opportunity to read at a branch meeting (via live videoconference or in person), and their names and works will be sent to National in D.C. for final evaluations to determine the top three winners in the nation. All winning poets will have their names published in The Pen Woman magazine.
A committee of Pen Women poets at National will determine the overall award winners. These winners will be featured in The Pen Woman magazine, with each poet getting a bio and space for one poem published in the magazine. Prize money of $100 each will also be awarded to the top three poets in the nation, along with the invitation to join the NLAPW. All poets who enter the competition should be given an application form or directed to our website for the form. The competition will also be up on our NLAPW website for branches to reference.
What’s required to make this work is a team of Pen Women volunteers from each branch who will send out the competition notice to their local news media, judge the entries, and determine the winners (one, two, or three).
Two press releases will be written at National and sent to all branches for use in their local media. The first release will announce the competition, and the second one will announce the winners at the branch level (with names to be filled in by the branch leaders). National will also promote the competition online.
To reiterate, the number of branch winners will be determined by the branch, based upon the number of entries received. Branch winners will receive a prize of $35 and name recognition in our Pen Woman magazine, as well as any additional recognition the branch wishes to provide its winners. Perhaps a winners’ local reading in person or on Zoom may be offered. A committee of Pen Women at the National level will make the final determinations of the top three national winners from among the branch winners forwarded to National.
Branch Participation
The rewards of participation will be felt by Pen Women in our branches and at the National level if we work together.
A branch may choose not to participate, but it will lose out on potential income and the prospect of bringing in exciting new members. We hope every branch will decide to get involved.
Branches may send the results of their winners to National. If there are few or no entries, there may be no winners. There is no need to determine first, second, and third places. Simply label the winning poems with the poet’s name and poet’s email and send them to National for final judging. National will notify the nation’s top three poets.
Distribution of Competition Entry Fees
Each branch will collect the competition entry fees and award the local winner or winners prize money. The remaining entry fees (after awarding prizes) will be divided by the branch, sending half to the League and keeping half for its treasury.
Final prize money for the top winners in the nation will come from National’s portion of the entry fees.
Additional Branch Incentive
The branch with the greatest number of competition entries will receive special mention in a Pen Woman article, a press release for the local media highlighting its efforts, and a $100 prize from National.
An Opportunity, A Challenge
This massive initiative presents a great opportunity for the NLAPW’s outreach into creative communities. The potential to bring new members into the League and all our branches is obvious. This endeavor also presents a challenge in terms of our involvement and time. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot achieve. Thank you all.