2018 Sonnet Contest
The Flint Hills Shakespeare Sonnet contest was launched in 2016 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. The contest continues to commemorate the "little song" which William Shakespeare brought to a high level of art. And so, bards, unsheathe your quills!
Contest Details:
• Final Judge is author and scholar Joseph Pearce.
• Sonnets may be written in iambic pentameter with either Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme schemes.
• Contestant may submit up to five sonnets.
• There is a $5 submission fee.
• The prizes are $500 for First Place, and $50 each for Second and Third Place.
Rules and Guidelines
The winners will be announced on the website on September 7, 2018. The winning sonnets will be read by an actor at the end of intermission at each night’s performance of The Merchant of Venice.
Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival
PO Box 118
St. Marys, KS 66536
Contest Details:
• Final Judge is author and scholar Joseph Pearce.
• Sonnets may be written in iambic pentameter with either Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme schemes.
• Contestant may submit up to five sonnets.
• There is a $5 submission fee.
• The prizes are $500 for First Place, and $50 each for Second and Third Place.
Rules and Guidelines
- Each entrant may submit between one and five sonnets, five sonnets being the maximum.
- The sonnets entered into the contest must be unpublished and not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.
- The sonnet must be written with the Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme scheme, following the usual fourteen-line iambic pentameter structure.
- The sonnets must be submitted online by August 1, 2018, or sent to the address below and must be postmarked by August 1, 2018.
- There is a $5.00 Submission Fee.
- No submission will be returned.
The winners will be announced on the website on September 7, 2018. The winning sonnets will be read by an actor at the end of intermission at each night’s performance of The Merchant of Venice.
Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival
PO Box 118
St. Marys, KS 66536

About the Judge
Our inaugural judge for the competitions is the renowned literary scholar Joseph Pearce, author of The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome (2008) and Shakespeare on Love (2012). Pearce also wrote and presented the television documentary named after his work The Quest for Shakespeare, which began airing in May 2009 on EWTN.
Our inaugural judge for the competitions is the renowned literary scholar Joseph Pearce, author of The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome (2008) and Shakespeare on Love (2012). Pearce also wrote and presented the television documentary named after his work The Quest for Shakespeare, which began airing in May 2009 on EWTN.