(Ventura, CA - April 10, 2013) The Ventura County Writers Club announced the winners of its twelfth annual Poetry Contest, at the club's monthly meeting April 9th. The contest was open to poets worldwide as long as the poem is in English.

This year, poet Alvin Barnes was be the contest chair. The contest was judged through two stages of elimination by a panel, with well-known area poet, Perie Longo as the final judge. The adult category awards were $100 for first place, $75 for second and $50 for third place. The two youth categories awards were $50 for first place, $35 for second and $25 for third place.

Over 150 poems from 110 poets were submitted this year. Winning poems will be published in the club's newsletter, The Write Stuff, and will appear in the next volume of the club's anthology, to be published in 2014. The winning poems will also be published in the VC Reporter on online at the club's website - www.VenturaCountyWriters.com. The winning poets were invited to the club meeting where they read their poems. and were honored at a reception following the readings. The winners were:

First Place: Flight by Diana G. Caskey

Second Place: Monsoons in New Mexico by Glenna Luschei

Third Place: Pending by Joyce La Mers

Left to right: Dianna Caskey, Joyce La Mers, and Glenna Luschel

Left to right: Nichole Riffenburgh and April Swan.

First place: The Nature of Clouds by Kyle Foster of Thousand Oaks

Second place: Skiing by Sydney Fleet of Oxnard

Third place: Field of Gold (Stolen) by Christopher Gaston of Thousand Oaks

Left to right: Sydney Fleet, Christopher Gaston and Kyle Foster