Inspirational Poetry Contest submissions are accepted Aug,15th 2006 through Nov 15th, 2006. Judges will choose one winner who will receive $500. And, voters will log on to poetry4jesus.org to choose second winner, who will also receive $500. The winners will be announced on Dec 15th.

San Bernardino, CA (PRWEB) August 7, 2006 — Poetry4Jesus will hold its first poetry contest. Submissions will be accepted beginning August 15th 2006 and will end Nov 15th 2006. The winners will be announced on Dec 15th. There are two prizes of $500 each. Plaques will be awarded to 2nd and 3rd places- the poem must be your original work – no prior copyrighted poetry will be accepted (will accept poetry if it has only been published on the poetry4jesus site). Category is Inspirational. There is a $10 per poem entry fee.

Poems will be posted on Poetry 4 Jesus website from December 1, through December 14. The poem with the most votes will be the winner of category one. The poem chosen from the panel of judges will be the winner of category two. Each winner will receive $500

Email any inquires to e-mail protected from spam bots – mail submissions w/$10 entry fee to: (please have poem on CD or Floppy) -

Poetry4Jesus Poetry Contest
2348 N. Sterling PO BOX 220
San Bernardino, CA 92404

Poetry4Jesus is a Spoken Word Ministry they consist of Poets from around the world. – with individualistic styles and poetry However, all edifying the body of Christ. Poetry 4 Jesus encourage those with an ear to hear or a desire to write log on to www.poetry4jesus.org and submit poetry, read or listen to spoken word audio. -membership is open

Poetry 4 Jesus mission is very simple – “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” Mark 16:15—- Those with an ear, let them hear – Poetry 4 Jesus encourage inspirational creativity by way of spoken word, poetry, arts, music, Christian hip hop and rap. Please invite Poetry 4 Jesus Ministry Team to your next community, church or school event. For more information please email us at www.poetry4jesus.org

www.poetry4jesus.org

Last Friday, I wrote about Rick Lupert”s Poetry Superhighway, where Rick Lupert has been featuring some of the best poets in the world since 1997. At the time, I told you about his Great Poetry Exchange, and the Great E-book Free For All. I didn”t mention the annual Poetry Superhighway Poetry Contest, which has been running since 1998 for one reason and one reason only – the deadlines listed in the contest rules were for October 2005. I dropped a quick line to Rick, who responded immediately that it was definitely a typo and updated his page with the correction. Which makes me very happy, because of all the poetry contests I see – and I do see a lot – this is one of my favorites.

What makes it so great? Everyone – every single poet who enters – gets a prize. The top three poets split the entry fees (minus the costs of mailing out the additional prizes) among them. The entry fee is $1 per poem, and you can pay it via Paypal (You can also mail it to Rick at the address provided in the rules.). The additional prizes are furnished by the contest sponsors – and anyone can sponsor the Superhighway poetry contest by supplying an additional prize. The prizes range from copies of chapbooks to two free admissions and a beer apiece for two people at the Bowery Poetry Club. That makes it not only a cool thing to do – give everybody a prize – it furthers Rick”s mission to spread poetry and get poets reading other poets. If you only enter one poetry contest in your life, this is the one you should enter – the odds are with you and the entry fee is unbeatable.

Each year, the publishers of The Adirondack Review, highly regarded literary magazine, hold four major poetry competitions – one each in fall, winter, spring and summer. The summer competition is open to poets who have not yet published a full length book of poetry. Chapbooks are not considered full length books, and don”t count as previous publication for the purposes of this contest. The winner of The St. Lawrence Book Award will be awarded $1,000 and publication of the prize-winning book of poetry or short stories, as well as an interview in The Adirondack Review.

The judge for the 2006 contest is Ander Monson, editor of DIAGRAM and the New Michigan Press. Monson”s book of poems, Vacationland, was published by Tupelo Press, All entries will be judged anonymously. Deadline for submisisons is August 31, 2006. Electronic submissions are not accepted, but simultaneous submissions are – as long as Black Lawrence Press is notified if the manuscript under consideration is accepted for publication elsewhere.

All finalists and semi-finalists will receive a copy of the winning book. In addition, all finalists will be considered for standard publication. For more information on submitting a manuscript of poetry to the St. Lawrence Book Award competition, check here

Tennessee State Poetry Society Sonnet Contest
Deadline: August 21, 2006
Type: Sonnet
Theme: Any
Eligibility: International Open to all ages
Prizes: 50$, 30$, and 20$ plus three honorable mentions and publicaiton in the Tennessee State Poetry Society”s Annual Anthology.

Description:Sonnets must be Petrarchan, Elizabethan(Spensarian, or Shakespearean. Email poetunbarred@yahoo.com for registration form.

That announcement led me on a little detective spree that wound up introducing me to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies home page. NFSPS annually sponsors fifty poetry contests with total prizes of more than $6,000 – but that”s only the start of what the organization – and its state branches – do. The stated purpose of NFSPS is to recognize the importance of poetry with respect to national cultural heritage. It is dedicated to furthering poetry on a national level and facilitating the union of poets in friendship and understanding. Begun in 1959 and incorporated in 1966, today there are 36 member states in the national organization (you can find information on how to start a state chapter if your state doesn”t have one on the NFSPS web site). Each year, in addition to the fifty contests sponsored by the national organization, NFSPS also sponsors the Stevens Poetry Manuscript Award, which awards $1,000, publication and fifty copies of the published book to one manuscript of 35-60 pages. This year”s deadline for entry is October 15, 2006. More details are available here.

One of the things that many of our past poets laureate have shared – not only among themselves but with the poets laureate of numerous states, cities and other nations - is an abiding passion for opening the world of poetry to children. Billy Collins created Poetry 180 to share a new poem every day of the school year with schoolchildren. In Chicago, the transit authority is putting poetry by schoolchildren on the busses. In Virginia, the Poet Laureate does workshops on poetry and art in the schools. Children and poetry belong together – but far too often, their early efforts are discouraged by pedantic lessons about rhyme and meter.

River of Words was founded by Robert Hass, United States Poet Laureate 1995-97. Every year since 1996, River of Words has held their River of Words poetry and arts contest. The program was created to encourage children to write about nature and the natural world. Each year, the judges read thousands of entries from students in grades K through 12 to choose winners in four different categories of poetry. In addition to four grand prize winners, one in each of four age categories, Hass and his cohorts choose about fifty poems for special mention and inclusion in an annual anthology of children”s poetry. The recently released River of Words Anthology includes poems by the winners of the 2006 contest as well as artwork by children who participated in the River of Words art contest.

River of Words also offers a full curriculum for teachers to help them introduce poetry and nature into their lessons. For more information and to read the winning poems for 2006 and other years, visit the River of Words web site.

From the web site:
River of Words has, from the beginning, received a lot of media attention. Editors and the public are eager to hear positive stories about today’s children, and ROW’s wonderful art and poetry is irresistible. ROW has been profiled on television on PBS’s “Green Means” series and also on radio on NPR’s “Living on Earth,” as well as on Voice of America and many radio and TV stations around the country. ROW artwork has graced the covers and pages of magazines, annual reports, textbooks and many other publications. ROW children’s poetry has been included in anthologies like Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon’s Prayers for a Thousand Years (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999) and in literary journals like The Potomac Review. Composer Steven Axelrod has even set several ROW poems to music to create a grand choral work, entitled (what else?) “River of Words.”