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: :
Entry forms are also available
at:
Poetry Workshops:
- Poetry workshops will be held throughout the
City of Dallas from October through January.
- 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.
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
