Northeast Texas Poetry Contest

Last year’s student winner, Presidential Scholar, Adriana Marie Rodriguez is pictured presenting her poem.

‘Honors Northeast,’ the honors program of Northeast Texas Community College, is accepting entries of poems and images for its annual Northeast Texas Poetry Contest. This is the first year that an image category has been added for original photography and artwork. All submissions should focus on Northeast Texas and enhance or enliven our sense of the surroundings, people, the culture, and/or the history of this area.

The contest is open to both students and members of the community and there is no cost to enter.

Adult poetry winners will take home $100 and $50 for second place. Full-time student poetry winners will receive $300 for first, $200 for second and $100 for third. For images, first place will earn $70, second, $20, and third, $10. Any genre of a poem, and at any length, can compete.

Contestants in the image category should submit an original scene photograph, or photograph of their own original painting, along with two sentences explaining its location in Northeast Texas and meaning. To win an award, contestants must be willing to read their poems or present their images at the Poetry Reading at the NTCC Whatley Foyer on Friday, Sept. 7 at 11:00 am. Two committees of NTCC faculty judges will determine the top poems, and images.

To compete, send preliminary questions, and/or your poem or image, principal occupation, and telephone number to Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, at ayox@ntcc.edu by noon on Friday, Aug. 31. For images, please send only one JPEG image from 500 KB to 4 MB of a scene in Northeast Texas. Contestants may consult the poems of all past winners since 2008 at www.ntcc.edu/honors in the “Poetry Contests” section. The Honors Northeast site also contains prize-winning essays and feature-length films on Northeast Texas.