About the Odyssey Contest
In 2004 Odyssey Poetry Contest was created to give poets attending LTUE a practical experience in what LTUE panels and presentations teach. The contest offers divisions for both adult poets and those in grades 5th through 12th to assist everyone with the learning the process and to develop the passion we all share.
The Odyssey Poetry Contest accepts poems up to 100 lines in length. All entries must be science fiction and fantasy in nature. Complete rules and information is available here.
Odyssey Contest Celebrity Judges
Michael R. Collings is a Professor Emeritus at Seaver College, Pepperdine University, where he directed the Creative Writing Program for over two decades.
He has published over 100 volumes of poetry, novels, short fiction, and scholarly studies of such contemporary writers as Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Dean R. Koontz, and Piers Anthony. Recent works include: The Art and Craft of Poetry (1996, 2009); In the Void: Poems of Science Fiction, Myth and Fantasy, and Horror (2009); Writing Darkness (2012); and A Verse to Horror: An Abecedary of Monsters and the Monstrous (2012)—the latter two being finalists for the 2012 Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award® for non-fiction and poetry respectively.
He has served as Guest of Honor, Scholar Guest of Honor, Poet Guest of Honor, and Special Guest at a number of science fiction, fantasy, and horror conferences, including HorrorFest ’89, Brigham Young University’s ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything,” World Horror Con 2008, and World Horror Con 2012. He has been an invited panelist on over 60 convention panels dealing with topics as disparate as Stephen King, the role of religion in science fiction, and the nature of horror poetry.
His work can be found at Collings Notes.
Michael Young is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in German Teaching and a minor in Music. He puts his German to good use teaching online German courses for High School students. Though he grew up traveling the world with his military father, he now lives in Utah with his wife, Jen, and his two sons. Michael enjoys acting in community theater, playing and writing music and spending time with his family. He played for several years with the handbell choir Bells on Temple Square and is now a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
He is the author of the novels THE CANTICLE KINGDOM, THE CANTICLE PRELUDE and THE LAST ARCHANGEL. He is also the author of the inspirational pamphlet PORTRAIT OF A MOTHER, a contributor to the anthology PARABLES FOR TODAY, the co-author of VOICES IN YOUR BLOOD and the author of several web serials through BigWorldNetwork.com. His most recent work is SING WE NOW OF CHRISTMAS, an anthology of short stories with the proceeds going to charity. He has also had work featured in various online and print magazines such as Mindflights, Meridian, The New Era, Allegory, and Ensign.
His work can be found at Mike.