POETRY SOCIETY OF TENNESSEE ANNOUNCES STUDENT AND COLLEGIATE POETRY CONTESTS

The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) is pleased to announce their student and collegiate poetry contests are now open for submission. The contests are free to enter and open to Tennessee-based students. Winners will receive monetary prizes, and the first-place poems will be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025, PST’s anthology of winning poems.

The society invites students, teachers and parents to become involved in its student contests, open to students grades 2-12. These contests accept entries from public, private and home-based schools and from organizations and individuals. The competition is broken into three divisions. High School (grades 9-12) and Middle School (grades 6-8) division contests seek a single free verse poem. The Elementary (grades 2-5) division contest is open to any poetry form. Postmark deadlines are December 21, 2024, for the High School division and February 22, 2025, for the Middle School and Elementary divisions. Guidelines are available at https://www.poetrytennessee.org/pststudentcontests.html.

The society invites college students of all levels to enter their inaugural Tennessee Collegiate Poetry Contest. This competition, open to college students across Tennessee, seeks a single poem relating to life in Tennessee. Entries must be submitted via email by October 30, 2024. Guidelines are available at https://poetrytennessee.org/pstcollegiate.html.

One of the society’s central values is to encourage new generations of poets. “Through our contests, people of all ages can discover and further explore the art, craft, and magic of poetry,” reflects PST President Lisa Kamolnick. “Budding poets have an opportunity not only to learn but also to have their poetry appear alongside award-winning poets from across Tennessee and beyond in an anthology that has been published for more than 60 years.”

For more information about the society or the contests, visit www.poetrytennessee.org.