Fighting Words Poetry Contest for Secondary School Students is inviting credible applicants who are willing to partake in its ongoing 2022 Scholarship programme at Pulitzer Centre.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an American news media organization established in 2006. The Pulitzer Center is recognized as a tax-exempt organization.
Benefits of Fighting Words Poetry Contest
- 1st place: $300, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
- 2nd place: $200, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
- 3rd place: $100, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
- Finalists: $75, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
Requirements for Fighting Words Poetry Contest Qualification
Any current K-12 student in the United States or internationally may enter. Students may write in any language and are welcome to submit multilingual poems. Judges will have reading fluency in English and Spanish.
Interview date, Process, and Venue for Fighting Words Poetry Contest
Poems will be judged by the following criteria:
1. Success of the poem on its own terms (craft, linguistic style, emotion, etc.)
- Questions to ask yourself:
- What response(s) do I want to evoke in my reader? Have I chosen the best words to evoke this response?
- Have I used poetic devices (e.g. repetition, imagery, metaphor), or chosen not to use them, to achieve a specific effect?
2. Successful inclusion of lines quoted from a Pulitzer Center story
- Questions to ask yourself:
- Have I chosen lines that add something important to the poem?
- Are the lines integrated into the poem smoothly, so their presence feels natural?
3. Thoughtful choice of perspective and respectful treatment of subject matter
- Questions to ask yourself:
- What is my relationship to the story I have chosen? How can I make a personal connection?
- Why am I writing from the perspective I have chosen? What other perspectives could I choose, and how would those choices change the poem?
- If the subjects of the story I have chosen read my poem, how might they feel?
Pulitzer Centre Fighting Words Poetry Contest 2022 for Secondary School Students
How to Apply
Interested and qualified? Go to Pulitzer Centre on www.tfaforms.com to apply
Go to the Pulitzer Center website and select a story (see the “Suggested Stories” tab above for a curated list). Write a poem of any form and length that includes lines from the story. Include an epigraph in the following format: With lines from “STORY TITLE” by JOURNALIST NAME, a Pulitzer Center reporting project.
SUBMIT YOUR POEM USING THIS ENTRY FORM!
The form will ask for some basic information, and you will upload your poem to the form as an attachment. You may also upload an audio or video file of yourself performing your poem; this file is optional, but the text file is required.
If you have questions about these guidelines or if the entry form is not accessible to you, please email [email protected].
For more details, visit Pulitzer Centre website.