Thirteenth Annual “Express Yourself” Youth Poetry Competition
     September 15, 2008 -- January 9, 2009   

To enter, contestants must:

• Be in Grades 2-12
• Live in the City of Dallas
• Attend a Dallas school (public or private or be home schooled)
• Enter an original poem in the competition, using this form: 
  • English 
  • formulario oficial Español

Entry forms are also available at:

• The Children’s Center at the Central Library
• All Dallas Public Library Branches
• The Library on Wheels

Poetry Workshops:

• Poetry workshops will be held throughout the City of Dallas from September 2008 to January 2009.
• The workshops provide guidance for students, promote interest in the competition and generate enthusiasm for the creative writing process.
• Poetry workshops will be conducted on a limited basis at the Central Library, public, private, charter and home schools and at after school programs and children’s organizations.
• Educators may contact the Poetry Competition Coordinator at 214-670-1671 to inquire about workshop availability or or submit a Poetry Workshop Request Form.

All poems submitted to the Competition are judged on originality and structure. All qualified entries are selected from each of the following grade categories: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12. Each grade group is judged separately. The judging panel will consist of professional writers, poets, language professors, and librarians. All decisions by the judging committee are final. By entering, participants expressly agree to these rules and to the decision of the judges.

Parents/legal guardians of all entrants must grant the Dallas Public Library permission to print, publish, or use any winning poem by a finalist or grand prize winner. These poems may be used for any and all purposes including, but not limited to, advertising, publicity, publication, and exhibition in any media known or hereafter devised. All rights to the poem will be retained by the author with the Dallas Public Library being granted permission to use the entrant’s poem at its discretion.

Sixty poem finalists will each receive a medal and a prize. All finalists will be invited to an award ceremony and have their work published by the Dallas Public Library in a bound anthology. One finalist will be selected to receive the Joe M. Dealey, Sr. Award of Achievement.

Questions: Please call the Children’s Center at 214-670-1671

 

Sponsors

Funded in part by the Joe M. and Doris Russell Dealey Fund of The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Public Library, and Friends of the Dallas Public Library, Inc.