Poetry Contests

Contest Information Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest Creative Communications Poetry Contest Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards Plymouth Writers' Group American Library of Poetry Other Publication Possibilities	Information on How to Get Published

Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest The contest encourages students in grades K through 8 to integrate science knowledge and activities with poetry writing and art. Deadline for sending student entries: March 17 2005. Entry packets can be downloaded at the contest's website. Please mail entry packets to: Dr. George Ladd Lynch School of Education Boston College Campion Hall, Room 211 Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 For more information, visit this site or call (617) 552-4229.
Creative Communcations Poetry Contest Students and adults are invited to enter. The contest has been sponsored by Creative Communication since 1993 and is used by teachers and parents to motivate young writers. Five separate divisions with 10 top winners in each division are offered. The five contest divisions are grades K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 and adult. Deadline for sending entries: April 5, 2004. You can submit your poem online at: www.poeticpower.com or you can mail your entry to: Creative Communication 90 N 100 E. Logan, UT 84321 For student entries, list grade, school name, school address and teacher's name. Only one entry per poet for each contest. Submitting more than one entry may disqualify you from the competition. All poems are limited to 21 lines of text. Poem must be the original work of the poet. Please do not type in all capital letters or double space the poem. Poems of merit will be invited to publish in an anthology. There is no entry fee or required purchase to enter or be published. For more information call (435) 713-4411 or go to poeticpower.com.
2004 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards An Annual Series of Awards to Encourage Poets to Explore and Illuminate Positive Visions of Peace and the Human Spirit Deadline for sending entries: July 1, 2007 Awards: $ 1,000 Adult Contestants $ 200 Youth (13 to 18) $ 200 Youth (12 and under) (Honorable Mentions in each category) Send 2 copies of up to 3 typed unpublished poems. Maximum of 30 lines per poem. Include name, address, telephone number, and age (if youth) in upper right hand corner on one copy of each poem. Title each poem. Do not staple individual poems together. Please keep copies of all entries as they will be unable to return them. Fee: $15 for up to three poems. No fee for youth entries. Judging will be done by a committee of poets selected by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Winners will be announced by October 1, 2007. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be notified by mail. The contest is open to people worldwide. All poems must be the original work of the poet, unpublished, and in English. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation reserves the right to publish and distribute the award -winning poems, including honorable mentions. Copies of the winning poems from the 2004 Awards will be posted on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation website after October 1, 2007. Copies of the winning poems from previous years are posted on our website Send entries to: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards PMB 121 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1 Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794 805-965-3443 / fax: 805-568-0466 Visit us here.
Plymouth Writers Group Plymouth Writers Group is compiling its eleventh annual anthology of teachers' writing. Our title and theme for this year's volume is Points of Connection. We are looking for fiction, essays, poetry and narrative which speak to those moments which seem to define or redefine who we are and our place in the world. Sometimes insights can occur in an ordinary moment, sometimes extraordinary circumstances bring us into a confrontation with ourselves, or sometimes only in looking back on a situation, in re-visiting it through writing are we able to understand its significance and the light it sheds on all of our experience. We are soliciting writings from teachers about defining moments in the classroom or in other parts of life. While we are interested in personal narrative essays based on classroom life, we do not publish scholarly work, or editorials related to the teaching profession, as our focus is on the publication of creative literary work. Please send two clean copies of your manuscript. Prose manuscripts should be 500-3,000 words in length and single spaced (approximately 1-6 pages). The name, address, telephone number and teaching affiliation of the author should be included on a title page, but not on the manuscripts. Please send no more than three pieces, no more than two of which may be prose. Send manuscripts to: Meg Petersen English Department MSC #40 Plymouth State University Plymouth, NH 03264 megp@mail.plymouth.edu Deadline: Submissions must be received no later than March 31, 2004 in order to be considered. We will provide an e-mail acknowledgement of receipt upon request. Please send a SASE for our decision. No manuscripts will be returned. Final decisions will be made on or before May 30, 2004. Authors will be contacted regarding accepted submissions. Direct queries to megp@mail.plymouth.edu, or visit our web site here.
The America Library of Poetry Based in San Diego, California and Houlton, Maine, The America Library of Poetry is dedicated to the expression of creativity through writing. From poetry to short stories, students, as well as adults, across the country now have an outlet and a forum in which they may share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Each year The America Library of Poetry, in conjunction with TheAmerican Literacy Council in New York, sponsors writing contests over several states. They host three types of ongoing contests. The Student Poetry Contest is for school age children enrolled in grades 4-12. The Open Poetry Contest is for entrants age 18 and over. Entries from the Student Poetry Contest are judged in four divisions: grades 4-5, grades 6-7, grades 8-9, and grades 10-12. Winners of each division, from previous contests, have been announced, and appear on this website, along with the winners of the Open Poetry Contest. Prizes: All winners will be notified by mail. To enter the contest go to the website or mail your entries to: Review Committee c/o The America Library of Poetry PO Box 978 Houlton, ME 04730
Get Published: Publications Looking For Creative Writing and Poetry Magazines *It is always a good idea to learn about a magazine's editorial preferences and guidelines before you send your writing to them. Spider, Cricket, Ask and Muse magazines run monthly writing contests. Each has a specific theme and deadline, so be sure to look at the current issue. For guidelines go to cricketmag.com, call 800-821-0115 or write to: Carus Publishing Company 315 Fifth St. P.O. Box 300 Peru, IL 61354 Creative Kids Magazine: The National Voice for Kids publishes works by kids ages 8 to 14. For guidelines, go to prufrock.com or call 800-998-2208. Merlyn's Pen Magazine. Annual publication of teen writing: fiction, essays, poetry. For guidelines, go to merlynspen.org or call 800-247-2027. Potato Hill Poetry Website. Publishes Poems of the Month and writing exercises for teachers and students K-12. Workshops and residencies are also available. For guidelines, go to potatohill.com, e-mail info@potatohill.com or call 888-5-POETRY. Stone Soup: A magazine by young writers and artists. Poetry, fiction, essays, artwork by young people through age 13. For guidelines, go to stonesoup.com or call 800-447-4569. Anthology of Poetry, Inc. Publishes annual anthology of student poems grades 1-12. For guidelines, call 336-626-7762, visit anthologyofpoetry.com, or write to 148 Sunset Ave. P.O. Box 698 Asheboro, NC 27204 The Children's Better Health Institute offers 7 magazines which look for poems, jokes and drawings: Children's Playmate (ages 6-8), Jack And Jill (ages 7-10), Child Life (ages 9-11), Turtle Magazine(preschool), Humpty Dumpty(ages 4-6), U.S. Kids(ages 6-10), and Children's Digest (ages 10-12). For guidelines, go to cbhi.org or call 317-634-1100. Highlights for Children magazine publishes poetry, prose and artwork by children up to pre-teen. For guidelines, go to www.highlights.com or call 570-253-1080. The Apprentice Writer accepts prose, poetry, photos and artwork submitted by high school students. For guidelines, go to www.susqu.edu/writers/highschoolstudents.htm or write to Gary Fincke, Writers Institute Director Susquehanna University Selingsgrove, PA 17870-1001 Upwords Poetry is a website upwordspoetry.com featuring and promoting the poetry and writing of young artists. Includes many great poetry-related links. Young Voice Magazine publishes prose, artwork and poetry from elementary, middle and high school students. For guidelines, go to youngvoicesmagazine.com or call 360-357-4683. Teen Ink is an online site specifically for teenagers interested in a variety of writing fields. Visit teenink.com for more information. New Moon is a magazine for girls and young women. It has opportunities for publishing fiction and poetry. Visit newmoon.org for more information Other Publication Possibilities Call your state's Department of Education to see if they publish a statewide poetry journal or sponsor a statewide poetry/writing contest. Call your state's Council of English Teachers to see if they sponsor an annual book of creative writing. Call local television stations and newspapers: many of them will publish poems and also sponsor annual poetry contests. Market Guide for Young Writers: Fifth Edition: 1996. Over 150 opportunities for writers ages 8-18. (This is an excellent resource.) Contact radio stations about hosting a live on-air poetry reading either at school or their station. Contact local banks and other businesses in your community and ask them to consider displaying student work on their walls. Just as artists use those walls, so too, can poets. Have students put together individual chapbooks of their poems. They should make the same decisions poets do regarding organization: chronologically, thematically, short to long, humorous to serious, good to best, etc. They might include artwork and an autobiographical sketch. Have students put together a classroom anthology of their best poems. Let them make decisions just as editors would. Devote an entire hallway in your school ("The Poetry Hall") to poems. Put up student work throughout the year, perhaps a new class gets to be published on the wall each month. Start each day with a poem read by a different student in your classroom or before daily announcements for the entire school. Post a poem of the day written by students and others on the school bulletin board for all to see. Set up a classwide or schoolwide poetry reading. Invite parents and the community to hear students read their poems. You might add dancers and musicians to this program. Set up a coffeehouse-style poetry reading in your classroom or home. Have students sign up to read their work. Atmosphere is everything. Don't forget the refreshments. Host a poetry slam at your school. There are so many ways to set this up. The form is being reinvented all the time. Students can sign up to read their own work, to read the poems of others, to make up poems on the spot when given a subject. Sometimes the audience will vote on these performances. You might be careful how you set this up. It needn't be competitive.

Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest

The contest encourages students in grades K through 8 to integrate science knowledge and activities with poetry writing and art.
Deadline for sending student entries: March 17 2005.
Entry packets can be downloaded at the contest's website. Please mail entry packets to:

Dr. George Ladd
Lynch School of Education
Boston College Campion Hall, Room 211
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

For more information, visit this site or call (617) 552-4229.

Creative Communcations Poetry Contest

Students and adults are invited to enter. The contest has been sponsored by Creative Communication since 1993 and is used by teachers and parents to motivate young writers.

Five separate divisions with 10 top winners in each division are offered. The five contest divisions are grades K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 and adult.

Deadline for sending entries: April 5, 2004.
You can submit your poem online at: www.poeticpower.com or you can mail your entry to:

Creative Communication
90 N 100
E. Logan, UT 84321

For student entries, list grade, school name, school address and teacher's name.
Only one entry per poet for each contest. Submitting more than one entry may disqualify you from the competition.
All poems are limited to 21 lines of text. Poem must be the original work of the poet.
Please do not type in all capital letters or double space the poem. Poems of merit will be invited to publish in an anthology.
There is no entry fee or required purchase to enter or be published.
For more information call (435) 713-4411 or go to poeticpower.com.

2004 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards

An Annual Series of Awards to Encourage Poets to Explore and Illuminate Positive Visions of Peace and the Human Spirit
Deadline for sending entries: July 1, 2007

Awards:
$ 1,000 Adult Contestants
$ 200 Youth (13 to 18)
$ 200 Youth (12 and under)

(Honorable Mentions in each category)

Send 2 copies of up to 3 typed unpublished poems. Maximum of 30 lines per poem. Include name, address, telephone number, and age (if youth) in upper right hand corner on one copy of each poem. Title each poem. Do not staple individual poems together. Please keep copies of all entries as they will be unable to return them.
Fee: $15 for up to three poems. No fee for youth entries.

Judging will be done by a committee of poets selected by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Winners will be announced by October 1, 2007. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be notified by mail. The contest is open to people worldwide. All poems must be the original work of the poet, unpublished, and in English.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation reserves the right to publish and distribute the award -winning poems, including honorable mentions. Copies of the winning poems from the 2004 Awards will be posted on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation website after October 1, 2007. Copies of the winning poems from previous years are posted on our website Send entries to:

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards
PMB 121
1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1
Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794
805-965-3443 / fax: 805-568-0466

Visit us here.

Plymouth Writers Group

Plymouth Writers Group is compiling its eleventh annual anthology of teachers' writing. Our title and theme for this year's volume is Points of Connection. We are looking for fiction, essays, poetry and narrative which speak to those moments which seem to define or redefine who we are and our place in the world. Sometimes insights can occur in an ordinary moment, sometimes extraordinary circumstances bring us into a confrontation with ourselves, or sometimes only in looking back on a situation, in re-visiting it through writing are we able to understand its significance and the light it sheds on all of our experience. We are soliciting writings from teachers about defining moments in the classroom or in other parts of life. While we are interested in personal narrative essays based on classroom life, we do not publish scholarly work, or editorials related to the teaching profession, as our focus is on the publication of creative literary work.

Please send two clean copies of your manuscript. Prose manuscripts should be 500-3,000 words in length and single spaced (approximately 1-6 pages). The name, address, telephone number and teaching affiliation of the author should be included on a title page, but not on the manuscripts. Please send no more than three pieces, no more than two of which may be prose.

Send manuscripts to:

Meg Petersen
English Department MSC #40
Plymouth State University
Plymouth, NH 03264
megp@mail.plymouth.edu

Deadline: Submissions must be received no later than March 31, 2004 in order to be considered. We will provide an e-mail acknowledgement of receipt upon request. Please send a SASE for our decision. No manuscripts will be returned. Final decisions will be made on or before May 30, 2004. Authors will be contacted regarding accepted submissions. Direct queries to megp@mail.plymouth.edu, or visit our web site here.

The America Library of Poetry

Based in San Diego, California and Houlton, Maine, The America Library of Poetry is dedicated to the expression of creativity through writing. From poetry to short stories, students, as well as adults, across the country now have an outlet and a forum in which they may share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Each year The America Library of Poetry, in conjunction with TheAmerican Literacy Council in New York, sponsors writing contests over several states. They host three types of ongoing contests.

The Student Poetry Contest is for school age children enrolled in grades 4-12.
The Open Poetry Contest is for entrants age 18 and over.
Entries from the Student Poetry Contest are judged in four divisions: grades 4-5, grades 6-7, grades 8-9, and grades 10-12. Winners of each division, from previous contests, have been announced, and appear on this website, along with the winners of the Open Poetry Contest.

Prizes: All winners will be notified by mail.
To enter the contest go to the website or mail your entries to:

Review Committee
c/o The America Library of Poetry
PO Box 978
Houlton, ME 04730

Get Published: Publications Looking For Creative Writing and Poetry

Magazines

*It is always a good idea to learn about a magazine's editorial preferences and guidelines before you send your writing to them.

Spider, Cricket, Ask and Muse magazines run monthly writing contests. Each has a specific theme and deadline, so be sure to look at the current issue. For guidelines go to cricketmag.com, call 800-821-0115 or write to:
Carus Publishing Company
315 Fifth St. P.O. Box 300
Peru, IL 61354
Creative Kids Magazine: The National Voice for Kids publishes works by kids ages 8 to 14. For guidelines, go to prufrock.com or call 800-998-2208.
Merlyn's Pen Magazine. Annual publication of teen writing: fiction, essays, poetry. For guidelines, go to merlynspen.org or call 800-247-2027.
Potato Hill Poetry Website. Publishes Poems of the Month and writing exercises for teachers and students K-12. Workshops and residencies are also available. For guidelines, go to potatohill.com, e-mail info@potatohill.com or call 888-5-POETRY.
Stone Soup: A magazine by young writers and artists. Poetry, fiction, essays, artwork by young people through age 13. For guidelines, go to stonesoup.com or call 800-447-4569.
Anthology of Poetry, Inc. Publishes annual anthology of student poems grades 1-12. For guidelines, call 336-626-7762, visit anthologyofpoetry.com, or write to
148 Sunset Ave.
P.O. Box 698
Asheboro, NC 27204
The Children's Better Health Institute offers 7 magazines which look for poems, jokes and drawings: Children's Playmate (ages 6-8), Jack And Jill (ages 7-10), Child Life (ages 9-11), Turtle Magazine(preschool), Humpty Dumpty(ages 4-6), U.S. Kids(ages 6-10), and Children's Digest (ages 10-12). For guidelines, go to cbhi.org or call 317-634-1100.
Highlights for Children magazine publishes poetry, prose and artwork by children up to pre-teen. For guidelines, go to www.highlights.com or call 570-253-1080.
The Apprentice Writer accepts prose, poetry, photos and artwork submitted by high school students. For guidelines, go to www.susqu.edu/writers/highschoolstudents.htm or write to
Gary Fincke, Writers Institute Director
Susquehanna University
Selingsgrove, PA 17870-1001
Upwords Poetry is a website upwordspoetry.com featuring and promoting the poetry and writing of young artists. Includes many great poetry-related links.
Young Voice Magazine publishes prose, artwork and poetry from elementary, middle and high school students. For guidelines, go to youngvoicesmagazine.com or call 360-357-4683.
Teen Ink is an online site specifically for teenagers interested in a variety of writing fields. Visit teenink.com for more information.
New Moon is a magazine for girls and young women. It has opportunities for publishing fiction and poetry. Visit newmoon.org for more information

Other Publication Possibilities

Call your state's Department of Education to see if they publish a statewide poetry journal or sponsor a statewide poetry/writing contest.
Call your state's Council of English Teachers to see if they sponsor an annual book of creative writing.
Call local television stations and newspapers: many of them will publish poems and also sponsor annual poetry contests.
Market Guide for Young Writers: Fifth Edition: 1996. Over 150 opportunities for writers ages 8-18. (This is an excellent resource.)
Contact radio stations about hosting a live on-air poetry reading either at school or their station.
Contact local banks and other businesses in your community and ask them to consider displaying student work on their walls. Just as artists use those walls, so too, can poets.
Have students put together individual chapbooks of their poems. They should make the same decisions poets do regarding organization: chronologically, thematically, short to long, humorous to serious, good to best, etc. They might include artwork and an autobiographical sketch.
Have students put together a classroom anthology of their best poems. Let them make decisions just as editors would.
Devote an entire hallway in your school ("The Poetry Hall") to poems. Put up student work throughout the year, perhaps a new class gets to be published on the wall each month.
Start each day with a poem read by a different student in your classroom or before daily announcements for the entire school.
Post a poem of the day written by students and others on the school bulletin board for all to see.
Set up a classwide or schoolwide poetry reading. Invite parents and the community to hear students read their poems. You might add dancers and musicians to this program.
Set up a coffeehouse-style poetry reading in your classroom or home. Have students sign up to read their work. Atmosphere is everything. Don't forget the refreshments.
Host a poetry slam at your school. There are so many ways to set this up. The form is being reinvented all the time. Students can sign up to read their own work, to read the poems of others, to make up poems on the spot when given a subject. Sometimes the audience will vote on these performances. You might be careful how you set this up. It needn't be competitive.

Potato Hill Poetry Online: Home | Publish/Contest | Contact Us | Workshops

Contest Information