AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL POETS

JUST POETRY!!!

the NATIONAL POETRY QUARTERLY

To find out how JUST POETRY!!! programs and scholarships can aid students and poetry programs at your school visit www.justpoetry.org

 Please read all of the Official Rules and Entry Procedures below before submitting your poem.

 In an effort to encourage the youth of America in the pursuit of literary exploration and excellence, and to help provide a venue in which American High School students may share their poetic works; The Live Poets Society of New Jersey presents our 12th annual, National High School Poetry Contest.

We believe it may be beneficial to browse through our other webpages before you decide to enter this contest. That way you may have a better idea what we are about and what we are looking for.

OFFICIAL RULES and ENTRY PROCEDURES

ELIGIBILITY:All U.S. high school students are eligible to enter this contest. That eligibility is continuous until May 31 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 Poems must be 20 lines or less (title and spaces between stanzas do not count), unpublished, the sole work of the entrant, and not be entered in any other concurrent contest.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, except for the self-addressed, stamped envelop required for entries sent through the US mail.

 

PRIZES:

The Easterday Poetry Award of a $1000.00 college scholarship will be awarded to the American High School Poets, "Poet of the Year". In addition there will be 3 First Place Winners (1 from each quarter), 4 Second Place Winners (1 from each quarter)and 4 Third Place Winners (1 from each quarter). There will also be numerous Honorable Mentions and hundreds of "JUST POETRY!!!" and Topical Winners. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Prizes will be $500.00, $300,00, and $150.00 scholarship prizes respectively. ALL WINNING POEMS WILL BE PUBLISHED. If you are dead set against having your poem published, we suggest you do not enter.

 

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 which they are writing about.

All scholarship winners will be selected from an online poll of subscribers to "AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL POETS, JUST POETRY!!!, the NATIONAL POETRY QUARTERLY" based on recommendations from the LPS Judges, The Easterday Poetry Award winner will be selected by the same fashion from among the four quarterly First Place Winners.

 

RIGHTS:

All winning poems will be published. "JUST POETRY!!!" Winners in "AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL POETS, JUST POETRY!!!, the NATIONAL POETRY QUARTERLY and "Topical Winners" in an upcoming anthology. 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 will be accepted continuously from April 1st through March 31

       of the following year. Estimated deadlines for each quarterly publication are

       June 30 for the September issue

       September 30 for the December issue

       December 31 for the March issue

       March 31 for the June issue

       The Easterday Poetry Award Winner will be announced in the June issue

TWO WAYS TO ENTER:

EMAIL ENTRIES 

E-mail entries may be sent to LPSNJ@comcast.net. Please enter "LPS Entry" in the subject space, or you may click the hyperlink at the end of this paragraph. If you use the hyperlink, the default e-mail program on the computer you enter from will be used and 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, whatever) using the address above

To enter on-line click here

Please don't forget to include your name, full mailing address, name of school, graduating year, and name of your English or writing teacher. Poems must still be 20 lines or less (not counting title or spaces between stanzas). Attachments are not accepted. In addition, if your e-mail program is set up to accept mail only from e-mail addresses approved beforehand (earthlink is the main player here), please put LPSNJ@comcast.net on your approved list or you may not receive our judges response. We will not send you junkmail and we do not share addresses with anyone else.

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 school, graduating year, and name of your English or writing teacher in the top right hand corner of the page.

Prepare a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (To do so, address a standard, #9 or 10 business-sized envelope to yourself and put a stamp on it. All mailed entries must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope in order to either return your poem to you or to notify you in the event your poem is chosen as a winner. Any entry which does not include a self-addressed, stamped envelope will be considered to be an invalid entry and will be discarded without being read or judged.)

Mail your poem and your self-addressed, stamped envelope to: (Please use standard, #9 or 10 business-sized envelope)

 

Live Poets Society, P.O. Box 8841, Turnersville, N.J. 08012

ALL U.S. MAIL ENTRIES MUST INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED LETTER SIZED ENVELOPE**. Winners will be notified by mail.

All items with insufficient postage will be returned to the sender, so please be sure to use current first class postage rates.

The deadlines stated are the "postmarked by dates". If you take your entry to the post office before the close of business on or before the deadline date, it should be postmarked on that day. Ask the Postal Clerk if you have any question as to what the postmarked date would be.

Because we go by the POSTMARKED DATE; EXPRESS MAIL, CERTIFIED MAIL, NEXT DAY DELIVERY, ETC is simply not necessary. Some people have wasted as much as $13 to $15 to make sure their entry arrives the next day.