Youth Poetry Voices

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April is National Poetry Month and the library is celebrating! Join the City of Menlo Park and the Menlo Park Library Foundation for our Annual Menlo Park Youth Poetry Voices exhibition for aspiring young poets. This exhibition will allow children from first grade through twelfth grade to share their poems with the Menlo Park Community.

All poets will have the opportunity to share their work at a reception hosted by the library, be published in a commemorative anthology which will be displayed in our Local Authors Collection, and recognized as a group before the City Council on the night of the reception. Featured poets will be invited to present their poem directly to City Council.

Submissions will be accepted between April 1 and April 30 with a reception and City Council presentation on May 21.

More information:

Menlo Park Youth Poetry Voices is broken into 4 age groups:

  • Grades 1-2
  • Grades 3-5
  • Grades 6-8
  • Grades 9-12

Submissions will be accepted using our submission portal throughout the month of April, with the official submission deadline being April 30. Submissions will also be accepted in person at the Menlo Park Library and the Belle Haven Library. Our review panel will meet in the first week of May.

At the end of the review period, the review panel will identify a selection of featured poems to be read before City Council following the Youth Poetry Voices Reception. Poets being asked to present in front of City Council will be notified during the second week of May.

All young poets will be welcome to share their voices at the Reception held at the library prior to the City Council Meeting.

Submission Guidelines:

  1. Participant must live or go to school in Menlo Park.
  2. Poems must be original submissions, previously unpublished, and submitted by the creator of the original work. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for presentation at the reception.
  3. Limit one poem per person.
  4. In accordance with the Menlo Park Library and Belle Haven Library Use Guidelines, submissions with content that is deemed to be “prejudice or intolerance of any variety, including derogatory comments, hate speech, and/or repeated microaggressions toward others” will not be accepted.
  5. All poems must be submitted between April 1 and April 30, 2024. Late poems will not be considered for presentation at the reception.
  6. All participants must submit their poem along with a completed submission form; any poems not attached to a submission form will not be considered for presentation at the reception OR for publication in the commemorative anthology.
  7. By submitting a poem, the participant agrees to release to the City of Menlo Park and the Menlo Park Library Foundation nonexclusive rights to reproduce the submitted work in any language, formats, media, and editions. 

Submit your work

 

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