Tenth Annual Poetry Review
In celebration of National Poetry Month (April 2026), the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport (LIACF), is pleased to announce our tenth annual poetry review for high-school students in Nassau County. The Nassau County Student Poetry Review is open to all students enrolled in grades 9-12 (including home-schooled and tutored children), regardless of experience or previous publication. The goal of this contest is to inspire those students who may never have written a poem to write one, and to encourage those who have to further develop the art of writing a poem. Entries will be judged on originality, creativity, and artistic quality. The winning poems will be listed on the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport’s website and will be published in a booklet which will be disseminated. In addition, we host the student poets to read their poems at a poetry reading.
Contest Submission Guidelines:
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Each student may submit up to three (3) poems.
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If the student is submitting more than one poem, each poem must appear on a separate page, although an individual poem may extend to more than one page.
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Each poem must be titled, and that title should appear on each page of the poem.
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Entries must be typed, on one side of the paper only. Submitted entries can be hard copy (not preferred) or electronically by submitting your pdfs via our website.
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Winners will be asked to email their poems (as an MS Word document) to LIACF to be used for publishing their poem on the LIACF website and booklet. Winners will be responsible for the accuracy of their poems.
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Entries must include a signed parental agreement, available on our website.
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Each entire entry must be accompanied by a cover page with the author’s name, address, phone number, and email address (if any), and the titles of the poems being submitted. The author’s name should NOT appear on the poems themselves.
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The poems may be written in any style—rhyming, free verse, sonnet, haiku, etc. All entries are final.
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Entries can be in any language, but if other than English, a translation must be submitted, or the entry will be disqualified.
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Entries must be the original, individual work of the writer. The student will be disqualified if any of their submissions are plagiarized (using other people’s written work, including song lyrics).
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Students must retain copies of all work submitted. Hard copy manuscripts will not be returned.
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We discourage mailing hard copies, but if so, entries must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2026, and mailed to the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport, at 130 E. Merrick Rd., Freeport, NY 11520.