Michigan River of Words—Michigan's Annual Environmental Poetry & Art Contest
What is Your Ecological Address?
2008 Michigan winners: poetry and art. Congratulations, poets and artists!
2009 contest details and guidelines will be available here in March; check back soon!
River of Words conducts a yearly international poetry and art contest for youth on the theme of watersheds. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of the place where they live, and to express, through poetry and art, what they discover.
About 100 poems and artworks from both US and international entries are selected as finalists each year. All winners receive ribbons, books and/or art supplies, t-shirts and other prizes. Winners are announced in April. The Grand Prize winner receives an all-expense paid trip for the winner and a guardian to Washington, DC to attend the RoW Award Ceremony at The Library of Congress. See previous international art and poetry winners and finalists.
The contest is open to youth anywhere in the world, from 5-19 years of age. Older students must have not yet completed high school. There is no charge to enter.
Submissions for the national awards are judged by River of Words co-founders Robert Hass, recent National Book Award winner and US Poet Laureate from 1995-1997, and writer Pamela Michael. Art entries are judged by children's book writer and illustrator Thacher Hurd.
All entrants are acknowledged with a Watershed Explorer Certificate.
What are readers and judges looking for? Freshness of language, local specificity, and the quality of being alive to the place.
Important Michigan 2008 Contest Information
Entering the contest is easy and free, but as in all things, there are some rules and guidelines. In addition to the students' and teachers' resources, we have some Michigan-specific guidelines:
If you want to be eligible for the Michigan prizes, we must receive your art or poetry entry no later than January 15th, sent to:
River of Words Contest
Community Arts Center
126 Quincy Street
Hancock, MI 49930
On your entry form, specify that you are entering as part of ROW/Michigan. Your entry is then autotmatically forwarded and included in the national contest where winners are announced in April: Eight Grand Prize winners—four in poetry and four in art, in four different age categories—are chosen from the US entries:
Category I — Kindergarten-Grade 2
Category II — Grades 3-6
Category III — Grades 7-9
Category IV — Grades 10-12
If you do not want to be eligible for the Michigan prizes, you may send your entries directly to the national contest address—read "how to":
River of Words Contest
PO Box 4000-J
Berkeley, CA 94704
On your national contest entry form, specify your class, group, or individual status.
Reading
Since good poets and writers are such good readers to begin with, an excellent opportunity to apply those close-reading skills will be the Contest Rules and Guidelines, which contains many important details:
- The maximum length of poems: 32 lines
- Shipping entries: do not mat, mount, laminate, or fold your art
- How to submit signed American Sign Language poems
- Must each poem must have a stapled Entry Form: Yes
- Will your work be excluded from judging if it is not presented according to specifications: Yes
- And the friend of all artists: Deadlines
Questions?
Consult the Contest FAQ or write to Michael Moore: mmoore@mtu.edu