ELIGIBILITY:
All U.S. high school students are eligible to enter this contest. That eligibility is continuous until June 30 of their senior year. Poems must be 20 lines or less (title and spaces between stanzas do not count), unpublished, the sole work of the entrant, and not be entered in any other concurrent contest. Only poems written in the English language can be judged. Foreign phrases are acceptable only with a translation provided. Only ONE poem per poet may be entered during any 90-day span.
ENTRY FEE:
There is no entry fee, and no purchase of any kind is required to enter or win the contest.
PRIZES:
The Easterday Poetry Award of a $500.00 college scholarship will be awarded to the American High School Poets, "Poet of the Year". In addition, there will be 4 "Best of Issue" Winners ($500 scholarship prize, 1 selected each quarter) and 4 Editor's Choice Selections ($100 scholarship prize, 1 selected each quarter)
There will also be 20 to 30 "JUST POETRY!!!" Winners each quarter and hundreds of "Topical Winners".
JUST POETRY!!! Winners will receive free copy of the JUST POETRY!!! quarterly, in which their poem appears.
There is no compensation for "Topical Winners" beyond the opportunity provided by having their poem published in one of our anthologies. ALL WINNING POEMS WILL BE PUBLISHED. After all, sharing your poetry is the goal.
JUDGING:
Entries will be judged on creativity, originality, imagery,
artistic quality, and mastery of poetic expression. There are no theme or style requirements. It is our desire to find poets who are passionate about the subject matter about which they are writing. All "Best of Issue" scholarship winners will be selected from among those poems published in "AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL POETS, JUST POETRY!!!, the NATIONAL POETRY QUARTERLY". Judging will be done in house by our volunteer staff of educators and poets!
The Easterday Poetry Award winner will be selected in the same fashion from among all quarterly "Best of Issue" Winners, as well as all Editor's Choice Winners.
RIGHTS:
In order to protect your work, all publications will be copyrighted as an anthology by LPS Publishing and/or The Live Poets Society. However, LPS Publishing, and The Live Poets Society will retain no ownership rights to your poetry. Such rights remain with the poet at all times.
DEADLINES:
Submissions are accepted 24/7. Only one submission per poet per quarter. Deadlines for each quarterly publication are:
September 30 for the Fall issue
December 31 for the Winter issue
March 31 for the Spring issue
June 30 for the Summer issue.
The Easterday Poetry Award Winner will be announced in August and appear in the Fall issue.
TWO WAYS TO ENTER YOUR POEM:
EMAIL ENTRIES
The hyperlink will open the default e-mail program on the device you are currently using, and this is the e-mail address that the judge's response will be sent to. So, if you are on someone else's computer or wish to use your own personal e-mail address, we suggest that you create a new message from that e-mail program (i.e., hotmail, yahoo, aol, gmail, whatever) using this email address... entry@highschoolpoetrycontest.com
All entries must include your NAME...FULL MAILING ADDRESS...HIGH SCHOOL...year of graduation...name of most recent English or Language Arts teacher.
Poems must be 20 lines or less (not counting title or spaces between stanzas 75 characters per line maximum).
Attachments (including pdf's, pictures, google docs., etc.) are not accepted.
Type or 'copy and paste' your poem into the body of your email.
To enter on-line click here
BY U S MAIL
If you cannot format your poem properly into a e-mail, or to enter in the traditional manner, type your one poem entry on 8.5 X 11-inch paper. Include your name, full mailing address, name of high school, year of graduation and name of most recent English or Language Arts teacher.
ALL U.S. MAIL ENTRIES MUST INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED ENVELOPE. in order to receive the judge's response.
Scholarship prizes will be held until college registration can be verified.
Scholarships not claimed within six months following high school graduation will be considered to be forfeited and revert to the organization.
