Poetry of Place Celebration seeks submissions from Nebraska students

The Nebraska Writing Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks submissions for its 2009 Poetry of Place Celebration.

Funded in part by the Nebraska Humanities Council, the purpose of this program is to encourage Nebraska students to write poetry about place and to make that poetry more visible. The contest is open to all Grade 1 through 12 students in the state. The deadline for submissions is March 30.

Participating Nebraska teachers will choose the poetry of three students per school grade category (elementary, middle and high school.) Selected poems will be sent to the Nebraska Writing Project at UNL, where they will be read by Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn and Nebraska poets Twyla Hansen and Matt Mason. Winning poems will be chosen based on quality and their representation of Nebraska place in rural, urban, and suburban settings.

Nine to 12 student poets will be selected to have their writing published on the Nebraska Writing Project Web site and participate in public readings at various venues across the state, including a reading May 1 at the Capitol. For complete submission guidelines and more information about the contest, visit www.unl.edu/newp/news/2009/09PoetryofPlaceCall.shtml or e-mail poetryofplace@gmail.com.