Proper Publishing is proud to host the first National Poetry Contest for Middle and High School students, Grades 6-12. This contest is the brain-child of our owner and Executive Editor, Susan Lewis. After serving 8 years as Director of Student Poetry and Director of the Escambia County Student Poetry Contest for the West Florida Literary Federation, Mrs. Lewis decided she needed to offer an incentive for young writers to explore poetry, which will then help educators prepare for the writing portion of any state-mandated tests.
Students have the opportunity to submit poetry (32 line max), and all forms are accepted (including but not limited to the following: haiku, sonnet, limerick, narrative, couplet, free verse, cinquain, diamante, pantoum, tanka, villanelle, etc.) but may only enter the contest once. Handwritten submissions will not be accepted. Submissions must be printed on standard, white copy paper, black printer ink. Please ensure students name is not on the entry, only on the cover page.
Submissions will be accepted both via email and post. If submitting via email, submission MUST be sent as an email attachment, containing a cover letter with the information below, all fields must be completed. Submissions written in the body of the email or missing contact information will be deleted. All submissions sent via post must contain one cover letter for every student entered.
Contest submission window is February 1 to March 15. Submit your students best work, encourage experimentation and uniqueness. There is no prompt or theme for the first contest. Mrs. Lewis wants to see raw talent in its purest form.
Students chosen by Mrs. Lewis will be published in an anthology available on Amazon Worldwide and Kindle Worldwide. Students chosen will be notified by email and post, so please ensure all information is accurate. Teachers will be notified via email. Also, students chosen will receive one free copy of said anthology.
We hope you see this as a wonderful opportunity to encourage artistic growth and self-esteem in your students because that is our only goal. We look forward to reading remarkable work, as Mrs. Lewis has told us of the enormous impact educators make on children every day.
Include with each entry. PRINT VERY CLEARLY!
Student Name _____________________________________________________
Address __________________________________________________________
City _________________________ State_______ Zip code ______________
Parent/Guardian phone number _____________________________________
Parent/Guardian Name(s) ___________________________________________
Parent/Guardian E-mail _____________________________________________
School _____________________________________________________________
English/Language Arts Teacher’s Name________________________________
English/Language Arts Teacher’s Phone________________________________
English/Language Arts Teacher’s E-mail________________________________
Grade ________
Poem Title and Form: ________________________________________________
Mail submissions to:
Proper Publishing
P.O. Box 634
Cantonment, FL 32533
Email submissions to:
theproperpublisher@yahoo.com
