Submissions open for Milwaukee’s first Youth Poet Laureate competition

After more than three years of planning, Woodland Pattern and its partners are pleased to announce that submissions are open for the first annual Milwaukee Youth Poet Laureate competition, a nationally affiliated Youth Poet Laureate program in collaboration with national partner Urban Word NYC.

High school juniors with overlapping passions for the written and spoken word, civics,  and issues of social importance are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants must be either a Milwaukee County resident or enrolled in a Milwaukee County high school.

In addition to opportunities to perform around the city and to compete at regional and national levels, Milwaukee’s first Youth Poet Laureate will receive a $500 scholarship, a paid summer internship with Woodland Pattern, a week-long mentorship with a former youth poet laureate, and support from Woodland Pattern throughout the laureateship, which will run through the student’s senior year.

Interested students should submit five poems and a CV between December 1, 2022 and February 15, 2023. Finalists will be selected in March and receive coaching to help them prepare for a juried performance event in April to be held at Milwaukee Public Library’s central branch. Among the judges for the competition are Milwaukee Poet Laureate Mario Willis, artist and Associate Educator of Teen Programs at the Milwaukee Art Museum Anika Kowalik, and poet and PhD candidate in Creative Writing at UW-Milwaukee Angela Voras-Hills.

For students who would like help preparing their applications, Woodland Pattern will be offering two youth workshops led by poets Annie Grizzle, Destinny Fletcher, and Antonio Vargas-Nieto. The first will focus on generating new poems, using writing prompts developed by Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton, part of a larger curriculum being implemented at several area high schools. A second workshop will help students edit their poems, prepare their CVs, and successfully submit their application. Both workshops are free and will be held at Woodland Pattern in February 2023.

In addition to Woodland Pattern and Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton, other core partners for the Milwaukee Youth Poet Laureate program include Milwaukee Public Library, UWM Writing Project, and the UWM Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

To learn more, register for a free workshop, and to apply, visit https://woodlandpattern.org/youthpoetlaureate

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.