The Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS) is a yearly Poetry Slam tournament put on by Poetry Slam, Inc. that pits individual slam poets from around the world that "live their lives as women" against one another.
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History
In 2008, the Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS) was introduced, in which only female and female-identified poets are allowed to compete. The first WOWPS was held in Detroit, Michigan and the first WOWPS champion was Andrea Gibson.
In late 2015, the languaging around inclusion was updated to read: "Competition at WOWps is limited to poets who live their lives as women. Qualified poets include female assigned or identified individuals who are PSi members and are 18+ years of age, including gender non-conforming individuals."
Format
The tournament has two days of preliminary rounds, in which poets compete in 1, 2, 3, and 4 minute bouts. After these 4 bouts are completed, the poet's rankings in each bout are added up and the top 12 poets of the tournament are invited to compete in the final round. A 3 minute time limit is applied to the poems in the final round.