Unlock Your Writing Potential: Students in Our Writing Competition Preparation Class Are More Likely to Secure Awards
1. What is the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest?
The Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry contest is a writing competition accepting all genres and styles of poetry from participants of all ages. This contest is ideal for high school students interested in creative writing to try their hand at different styles. Students can submit either published or unpublished poetry to compete for this astonishing $10,000 prize pool. For the 2024 season, the head judge is Michal “MJ” Jones and assistant judges are Briana Grogan and Dare Williams.
There are two categories, each with a grand prize each. The Tom Howard Prize is awarded to the winning poem in any style or genre, and the Margaret Reid Prize is awarded to the winning poem with rhymes or a traditional style.
2. Submission Requirements
All ages and genres of poetry are accepted for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Participants from all countries (except Syria, Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Russia, and Belarus) are welcome to enter, but entries must be written in English.
Entry fee: $22 per submission. In each submission, students can include up to three poems. Students may send in multiple submissions for the contest.
Length limit: maximum 250 lines per poem (excluding title or blank lines)
Acceptable document types:.doc, .docx, .pdf, .odt, .rtf, .txt
Acceptable fonts: Times New Roman, Arial, or Verdana in 12-point size or larger
To ensure anonymity, remove name/initials, email address, mailing address, phone number, and social media links in your submission.
3. Important Dates
Submission deadline October 1, 2024.
Results will be announced on April 15, 2025.
Submit online through an online portal called Submittable.
4. Awards and Prizes
1st place for the Tom Howard Prize (all poetry genres) receives $3,500 cash prize.
1st place for the Margaret Reid Prize (rhyming poetry or traditional style) receives $3,500 in cash prize.
10 Honorable Mentions receive $300 cash prize each.
The top 12 entries will be published online. The top two winners will receive two-year gift certificates from co-sponsor Duotrope—Duotrope is an online resource to help writers and artists find publishers and literary agents.
90% of Aralia Students Win Awards in Poetry Contests
5. Why participate in a poetry contest as a high schooler?
Use the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest to prove your passion for poetry, show off your skills, gain experience for future writing competitions, and build a writing portfolio to include in your college applications! With such wide parameters for the participant pool, winning a prize or honorable mention at this poetry contest is very impressive to college admissions.
If you’re considering majoring in Creative Writing, Poetry, etc. or a potential career as a writer (whether that be in Communications, Journalism, Publishing, Content Strategy, Copywriting, etc.), this poetry contest is an excellent chance to understand how the creative industry works. Poets must consistently submit their works to publishing houses and get used to rejections and countless rounds of editing/rewriting. This poetry contest is also your chance to receive invaluable feedback from experts in the field. Judges for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest are award-nominated veterans in the world of poetry. Even if this contest isn’t the right one for you, there are countless other poetry contests for high school students.
Last but not least, winning $3,500 in cash is almost unheard of in writing competitions. Rarely do writing competitions open to high school students offer such a large monetary incentive. Your prize money can go towards college tuition, that entrepreneurship idea you’ve always had, STEM research summer program, or just a fun trip high school graduation trip!
6. Prepare for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
Read last year’s winning poems: To gain insight into what it takes to win the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, you can read last year’s winning poems. Cist by Kizziah Burton won the Tom Howard Prize for poetry, while Sestina for My Daughter by Mikaela Hagen won the Margaret Reid Prize for traditional verse. Additionally, you can see a full list of Honorable Mentions recipients, along with judges’ comments on the winning entries. For further examples, consider reading the winning entries from 2022 and 2021 as well.
Read through the contest host Winning Writers’ archive of poetry critiques where talented community members submit their poems and experienced judges critique their work, providing valuable constructive criticism and praise. Winning Writers also has a list of recommended books for poetry students.
Do some poetry exercises to get your creative juices flowing. Analyze poetic techniques of popular songs. Notice structure, metaphors, and use of other writing tactics that make the words flow smoothly. Look for inspiration in helpful resources online. Watch spoken word or slam poetry show/videos on YouTube. Check out Poetry Foundation online database of famous poems and prose and their Poem of the Day. Poets.org has almost 16,000 poems for you to browse. Subscribe to their Poem-A-Day email newsletter to get fresh inspiration every day.
Collect words and phrases as you go about your day. Notice a string of words that sound nice together? Note it down for later; the phrase could be the seed to your next poem.
Participate in a poetry slam or open mic. Here, you can not only meet talented poets who can help edit your work, but also realize how your poems could be improved after reading them aloud in front of an audience. Hearing other students’ work is a great way to gain inspiration and see how your skills stand compared to your peers.
Spend some time brushing up on the basics of poetry. Read up on how to use poetic devices and prosody. Read classics in traditional styles of poetry as well as free verse.
Regularly keep a journal and scrapbook to illustrate your emotions and special moments in your life. Poetry is the most artistic way of verbal expression, and most of the best of poems are emotionally charged. Keep track of your different feelings, and you never know when a niche memory can become a poem.
Summer is the perfect time for ambitious high school students to brush up on extracurriculars. One of the best ways to improve your writing is simply to write. This summer vacation, always keep a writing tool near you to jot down ideas and note observations of the world/how other people at any time. These tidbits can serve as inspiration for your piece. Writing is a long arduous process with obstacles such as writer’s block, and a winning piece isn’t created until you’ve reworked it innumerable times. It’s better to write an uninteresting paragraph than to write nothing.
7. Take a poetry class with Aralia Education
Aralia Education offers Intro to Creative Writing, an online class series in which three out of ten 90-minute classes will focus on poetry. Our class is taught by an English writing and humanities teacher from a top-ranking private high school. With over 31 years of teaching experience and multiple-time recipients of the National Outstanding Teacher Award, Aralia’s writing teacher sets students up for success. Aralia Education also offers a writing competition preparation class where students will work with experienced teachers on perfecting a piece for submission to a writing competition of their choice. Learn more about the spring or summer sessions of Aralia’s writing competition preparation class!
