Established in 1923, the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Competition is the oldest continuously running poetry contest for undergraduate students in the United States. Each year, three celebrated poets judge the competition, in which poets from Mount Holyoke and five other institutions read their poems. The judges also give readings from their own work and announce the winner following their reading.
Robert Frost served as one of the very first judges for the competition, in 1924. Since that time, many notable poets have served as judges, including Marianne Moore, Louise Bogan, William Carlos Williams, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Wilbur, Adrienne Rich, Denise Levertov, Maxine Kumin, Audre Lorde, Seamus Heaney, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Alexander, Myung Mi Kim, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Dawn Lundy Martin, Carl Phillips, John Yau, Marilyn Chin, Ronaldo V. Wilson, Ari Banias, Alicia Ostriker, Joseph O. Legaspi, Donika Kelly, Martín Espada, Dawn Lundy Martin, Anna Maria Hong, Kaveh Akbar, Franny Choi, Erica Hunt, Fred Moten, Kay Gabriel, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Oliver de la Paz, and Mary-Kim Arnold.
Many previous contestants have gone on to pursue distinguished literary careers—among them Muriel Rukeyser, James Agee, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, James Merrill, David Lehman, Mary Jo Salter, and Maggie Nelson.
The events are sponsored by the Kathryn Irene Glascock Memorial Fund, the Joyce Horner Poetry Prize, the Charles and Rosanna Batchelor Memorial Fund, the Weissman Center for Leadership, and the Department of English at Mount Holyoke College.
The 2026 contest will take place on Thursday–Friday, April 9–10, with the Contestants’ Reading on April 9 at 5:30 pm in the Gamble Auditorium (Art Building) and the Judges’ Reading and Announcement of the Winner on April 10 at 11 am in the Stimson Room (Williston Library).
This year’s poet-contestants will represent Bard Microcollege Holyoke, Brooklyn College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Tufts University, and University of Connecticut. The competition will be judged by the celebrated poets George Abraham, Diannely Antigua, and Miller Oberman.
