Young Adult Poetry

Category Details

Grades 9-12 or equivalent age (which must be indicated on 3″ x 5″ card as well as mss). Three poems equal one entry ($5.00). One poem per page. One-page poems only, please. I am drawn to vivid imagery through word choice and where applied rhyme that rings true (not forcing words into the verse). Look for the ability to succinctly capture an emotion, and a little shock value, used sparingly.

About Judge/Sponsor

CAROL LYNN STEVENSON GRELLAS (Sierra Foothills, CA) received her MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she received a Merit Scholarship. She is an eleven-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012 she won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest, with her manuscript Before I Go to Sleep. In 2018 her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for The CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem, A Mall in California, took 2^nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. In 2019 Carol Lynn’s chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Her latest collection of poems, Alice in Ruby Slippers (Aldrich Press 2021), a book of form, has been selected for Sundress Publication’s The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed. Carol Lynn’s work was recently featured in Mezzo Cammin, Verse Daily, and appeared in the Saratoga Authors Hall of Fame. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief for the Orchards Poetry Journal and Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Tule Review. She is a former member of the Sacramento Poetry Center’s Board of Directors. According to family lore, Carol Lynn is a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Judge Website

Author Website