Youth Engagement

“Color our world with HOPE” – The Krayon Kids

2024 Youth Poetry Contest

The Arizona State Poetry Society 2024 Youth Poetry Contest is fast approaching! It opens 2-15-2024 and closes 4-15-2024.

For the rules, application form and permission slip, please click the link below.

2023 Youth Poetry Contest

The Arizona State Poetry Society is pleased to announce the 2023 Youth Contest Winners! We extend our congratulations to all winners in the three categories and to those who received Honorable Mentions for their fine work.

This was ASPS’ first-ever youth contest throughout the state of Arizona and we are thrilled to say that 1,080 submissions were received: 126 in grades 1-4; 593 in grades 5-8 and 361 in grades 9-12. We are grateful to the Arizona Department of Education for advertising this contest throughout the state and we look forward to offering this contest again in 2024.

We offer special thanks and recognition to the Contest Chair, Christy White, for her outstanding work in coordinating the contest and to our three judges for their fine discernment: Resa Ferreira, Janine Dubik, and Holly Parsons.

Congratulations to you all ~ keep up the good writing!

Youth In The News

We are so proud that our young poets were recognized by the local media. If you haven’t had a chance to read this wonderful article, click on the article.

The Primary Poets

The Primary Poets is a pilot youth poetry group (ages 5-12) sponsored by the Arizona State Poetry Society and Coordinated by Karen Morales.

Karen is a former second grade teacher and current children’s author of The Krayon Kids book series.

2023 Primary Poets Poetry Anthology Event

The youth have just finished up their anthology program. They had all of their meetings and rehearsals on zoom and finally got to meet in person at the new Goodyear Civic Square at Georgia T Lord Library where they each performed their poem. The room was filled with family, friends and community members. After the reading, all went out into the attached garden area for autographs. The theme of the night was “seeds of creativity” from the words of Michael Jackson …..”The magic, the wonder, the mystery and the innocence of a child’s heart are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world” – M Jackson

The venue had one of the few Super Bowl Signs in the state and so the poets had their picture taken on it and it was sent in to the AZ Super Bowl committee. The 14 students will have their poems sent in to ASPS for the contest in March.

Keep checking back for upcoming events.

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