Diana Brebner Prize - Arc Poetry

Prize: $500

The Diana Brebner Prize is awarded yearly for the best poem written by a National Capital Region poet, who has not yet been published in book form. The prize honours the late Diana Brebner, an award-winning Ottawa-based poet who was devoted to fostering literary talent among new, local writers.

2025 Judge’s Bio

Jessica Bebenek

Jessica Bebenek is a queer interdisciplinary poet, bookmaker, and educator living between Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) and an off-grid shack on unceded Anishinaabe territory. Bebenek’s writing has been nominated for the Journey Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize, and in 2021 she was a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in Poetry. Her recent chapbooks include You Don’t Get Out Much (2024), I REMEMBER THE EXORCISM (Gap Riot Press, 2022), and What is Punk (2019). Her first full-length poetry collection, No One Knows Us There, was published by Book*hug Press in Spring 2025. @notyrmuse www.jessicabebenek.art

Extended Deadline: September 7, 2025

Each entry also entitles the entrant to a 1 year (3 issue) Canadian subscription to Arc.

Online payment of the entry fee can be made here.

Number of Poems	Entry Fee*
1 or 2 poems	$35
3 poems	$40
4 poems	$45
5 poems	$50

* All prices listed are in CAD

Eligible entries must not exceed 35 lines per poem (including spaces).
No simultaneous submissions or previously published poems will be accepted.
Entrant’s name, address, e-mail and phone number must not appear on the poems, but instead on a separate sheet or in the body of the submission email, which should also list the titles of all poems entered.
Emailed entries should have “Diana Brebner Prize” in the subject line, and can be sent to: brebner@arcpoetry.ca.
Mailed entries should be sent to: Diana Brebner Prize, Arc Poetry Magazine, PO Box 269 Stn B, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6C4

The contest is open to authors who have had their principal home and actual residence in the National Capital Region for at least 6 months immediately prior to the date of submission, and who have not yet published their poetry in book form. Proof of residency may be required.

Mailed entries will not be returned.

Entrants’ information is concealed during deliberations.

Past Winners

Poetry

2025 Judge’s Bio

Jessica Bebenek

Past Winners

community science at the pollinator safari

in the country of our failures

Curfew

Kaytlyn invites me to a party