Over the last 100 years, the Mount Holyoke College English department has invited college-aged poets and professional poet judges to the College to participate in the Glascock poetry contest. This year the judges — poets Hoa Ngyuen, Eileen Myles and Evie Shockley — split the prize and awarded it to Dartmouth College senior Tom Bosworth and Pratt Institute senior Portlyn Houghton-Harjo.
Newbury, a senior at Suffolk who is majoring in English with a creative writing concentration and a minor in philosophy, says that he has been interested in poetry since the age of thirteen thanks to Savannah Brown, who posted her poetry on Youtube when Newbury came across it. Poetry with a “tragic element” also inspires Newbury, who cites Plath and Keats as other inspirations for the way he writes his poetry.
Chandler wasn’t aware of the contest before coming to the College and learned about it in one of their classes. “One of my professors brought it up and [it was] one of those moments where something just clicked, it was like, ‘Oh shit, I have this work and I think it’s ready, I’ve been working on it [and] putting it together and let’s just see,” Chandler said. “That’s kind of what guided me to submit and I feel really, for lack of a better word, blessed and excited that I was picked as the contestant and [am] super excited to be performing.”
Thomas Bosworth, a senior at Dartmouth College, always knew that he wanted to be a writer. He never expected to become a poet, but after taking a creative writing class he “was bitten by the [poetry] bug and couldn’t stop” discovering new passions and interests through his craft. Now, his work has made him a contestant in the 100th annual Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Competition.
