March Events and Contests Lead up to National Poetry Month

In anticipation of April’s celebration of National Poetry Month, young poets can share their work through community art workshops and poetry contests! Offering young writers a space in which to share their voices, these upcoming events and contests provide unique opportunities to explore creativity.

In preparation for National Poetry Month in April, opportunities are beginning to arise for young writers to create and share original works – offering youth poets (and aspiring poets) spaces in which to share their voices.

Every Tuesday during the month of March, budding poets and origami enthusiasts ages 9 and up can congregate at the Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton for Random Acts of Poetry! The ongoing event series weaves traditional origami paper-folding techniques with the writing and sharing of poetry to make unique folded flowers that “bloom” to reveal small poems. Participants are welcome to attend one or all of the events, but will get more out of Random Acts of Poetry if they’re able to be a part of all or most of the workshops. While participants will learn origami and writing skills by attending, an additional product of the series is a display of work to be shown and shared during Easthampton’s Bookfest, held on April 9th. Random Acts of Poetry is held from 3:30-4:30pm. Sign up by calling 413-529-1605 or by e-mailing youthdept@ewmlibrary.org.

While Random Acts of Poetry offers a relaxed, community-minded means of sharing poetry, young poets have a second – and more competitive – means of sharing their poetry this month… The New England Poetry Club offers two annual poetry contests just for Massachusetts youth! Elementary- and middle-school-aged writers can submit poems to the club’s Longfellow Prize contest, while high school-aged writers can enter poems for the Ruth Berrien Fox Award. Neither contest requires entrants to write poems of a specific length or style, or following any sort of guidelines, making them easily accessible to young writers. The deadline for submission to both contests is Monday, March 28th. Poems must be typed, labeled with the contest to which they are to be entered, and must include the author’s name and address. The contest also asks that entrants include the name and address of the school that they attend so that communication can be done via the educational institution. Poets who do not attend school should contact the New England Poetry Club to find out what contact information should be included for their submission.