The Jane Underwood Poetry Prize was established to celebrate and memorialize Jane Underwood, the founder and long-time director of The Writing Salon. Jane was a gifted poet and photographer who made The Writing Salon a prominent and respected creative writing school in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Open to all poets, the prize is awarded for a single poem. The prizewinner will receive $250, publication of the winning poem at The Writing Salon's website, and an invitation to do a public reading at The Writing Salon. The winner and finalists will be announced at the website in March 2021. 

We believe that blind judging offers contestants a fair and unbiased reading of their work. We assure all contestants that their identity will not be revealed to our readers and ask that they refrain from including identifying information on their submissions. A selection of Writing Salon teachers will screen the entries, and David Hernandez will be the final judge. All readers have a distinguished publication record and have won major poetry prizes. Each entry will pass through at least two readers.