adventures of a typical high school student

Welcome back everyone!

A few days ago, I submitted a poem to the (now closed) Kenyon Review Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers contest. I hadn’t written a poem with the contest specifically in mind, but I knew I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and enter something. It took quite a bit of deliberation (along with me procrastinating until the second-to-last day to submit) to decide which of my poems I thought would have the best chance in the contest.

I am by no means a poetry judge or expert, but I figured I would try to help you fellow writers out by making a list of a few criteria to consider when choosing a poem or multiple poems for submission. I did my own research and read a few similar articles, so not all of these ideas are fully my own.

• Consider whether it’s your most thought-provoking or powerful piece. If you want yourself and your writing abilities represented in a single (most likely short) poem, it has to be a showstopper. If you’re reading through your poems to choose one, go with your gut- the one that evokes the most feelings in you should usually be the one you choose.
• Compare the lengths of your poems. In a lot of the articles I read online, it was mentioned that shorter poems often get chosen for publishing or contests. I’m not exactly sure why- maybe because they take up less space when being published? Either way, this is something to keep in the back of your mind.
• Make sure your poem adheres to the rules and guidelines of the contest!! This is so important just because no matter how amazing your poem is, you won’t be able to win a contest if you don’t follow the rules. Make sure it fits any length requirements and it’s formatted appropriately for submission.
• Weed out your cliché pieces from the mix. Unless you’ve put an interesting new twist on a cliché, your poem probably won’t stand out- there’s a reason why clichés are, well, clichés. You can look up lists of common clichés in poetry; that’s what I did, so you can use this one I found here if you want.
• Some contests don’t give you a lot of background/information to go off of when submitting, but for ones that do, do your research. With the Kenyon contest I entered, I read past winners’ pieces and also read other pieces that are featured in the Kenyon Review unrelated to the contest. This gives you a clue on what kind of topics/subjects they like, and which of your poems would be the best fit for the contest.

Again, I want to clarify that I am not a poetry expert or contest judge, but I figured these tips could help you since they helped me in my own selection for a poetry contest. If you are planning on submitting to any poetry contests, let me know down below. I would love to chat with fellow writers and read some of your work.

-Brooke