Benvenuto High School Poetry Competition Guidelines

New in 2022: We are now accepting both text and spoken-word submissions for the competition. 

 

Guidelines and Submission Instructions

• Students may submit up to three poems total. While poets may choose to enter both categories, they may not submit the same poem in both categories. 
• Text submissions will be evaluated on the basis of creativity, originality of content, and literary craft and should not exceed 50 lines. Text entries should be submitted as PDF or Word documents, attached to an email that includes the student contact information listed below.
• Spoken word submissions will be evaluated on the basis of creativity, originality of content, and excellence in performance. Spoken word entries should be submitted as videos, not to exceed three minutes. They may be submitted via an emailed link to a YouTube (instructions for sharing private YouTube videos here), or an emailed link to a TikTok video. The email must include the information listed below. 
• We are accepting electronic submissions to cpoetry@msu.edu through Thursday, December 1, and submissions will be judged by Center for Poetry staff and guest judges. The winners will be notified via email and announced no later than February 28 via our website.

Each student's entry must include the following:

• Student name
• Student's home address
• Student's phone number
• Student's email address
• Name of high school
• Year in school
• Sponsoring teacher's name and email

For poets and teachers seeking structure or inspiration, consider using any of the following optional prompts: 

• A poem that consists mostly or entirely of questions. They can be as surprising as you wish. Feel free to push the boundaries of logic and “sense.” For a couple different approaches, see excerpts from Pablo Neruda’s Book of Questions and Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You.”  
• For spoken word approaches to the question poem, see Taylor Mali's "Totally Like Whatever, You Know?" and Asia Bryant-Wilkerson's "The Question Poem."  
• Create an abecedarian poem, where each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet. For possible models, see Robin Silbergleid’s “Ars Poetica” and John Bosworth’s “A Boy Can Wear a Dress.”
• Create a poem that uses anaphora, repetition of an initial word or phrase. For models, see Adrienne Rich’s “Dedications,” an excerpt from Joe Brainard’s “I Remember,” Martín Espada’s “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” (text) and video, and Joy Harjo’s “Remember(text) and video.

 

Click here to view/download flyer.

 

Competition winners are cordially invited to Michigan State University for a reading/performance of their winning entries on March 15, 2023.