Beverly Hopkins Poetry Contest for High School Students

Congratulations to our 2022 Winners!

FIRST PLACE
Tenley Hall, Clayton High School
Up North

SECOND PLACE
Jelani Penny-Johnson, Metro Academic & Classical High School
This is the Life We Have

THIRD PLACE
Margaret Handley, Nerinx Hall High School
Threadwork

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Delaney Carey, Nerinx Hall High School
To Pin A Bouncy-Ball Down

Charlie Wagner, St. Louis Priory School
What the Bartender Said

Nicholas Merlo, Crossroads College Preparatory School
Kick Me While I’m Down

Tatum Ladner, Clayton High School
Brown Buttons

SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED

First Prize: $225
Second Prize: $125
Third Prize: $75

Winning poems will be published on Saint Louis Poetry Center’s website.

2022 Contest Judge:

Srikanth Reddy

Srikanth Reddy

Delightful, mesmerizing, flamboyantly risky, and hilarious are some of the words that critics use to describe the poetry of Srikanth “Chicu” Reddy. He has published three collections to date: Facts for Visitors, Voyager, and Underworld Lit. Reddy is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Chicago, where he edits the Phoenix Poets book series at the University of Chicago Press. For more information visit srikanthreddypoet.com.

Submissions Open:
December 1 – March 1

Entry Fee:
None

GUIDELINES:
  • Open to all high school students in the St. Louis metro area living within a 100-mile radius of St. Louis
  • Submit up to 3 typed poems per entry, any form and length
  • No manuscripts will be returned
  • Poems previously published in high school publications are allowed
  • Include name (no pen name required) and email address on each poem
  • Enclose a cover sheet that includes: name, address, phone number, email address, high school, grade, teacher’s name (if she/he/they encouraged or assigned the poems), and the titles of the poems submitted
  • Contest results will be announced in May

Prize winners and honorable mentions are invited to read their poems at Saint Louis Poetry Center’s annual Poetry Concert.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Email* entries to:
[email protected]

*If submitting entries by email, attach cover sheet & poems as separate Word or PDF documents. Google Drive documents are discouraged.


Mail entries to:
Saint Louis Poetry Center
Hopkins High School Poetry Contest
3301 Washington Ave. # 2D
Saint Louis, MO 63103

EMAIL & POSTMARK DEADLINE:  March 1, 2022

Congratulations to our 2021 Winners!

FIRST PLACE
Oviya Srihari, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Partition as Narrated by an American Daughter

SECOND PLACE
Grace Ruo, Hazelwood West High School
African in America

THIRD PLACE
Cedric Bruges, St. Louis Priory School
Building Sandcastles

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Lara Wulff, Central Visual & Performing Arts High School
Cicada Funeral

Rachel Voss, Fort Zumwalt South High School
Moonshine Boy

Oviya Srihari, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Advice from Your Daily Horoscope

Congratulations to our 2020 Winners!

FIRST PLACE
Rowan Elliott, Gateway Science Academy
Adagio

SECOND PLACE
Adam Figueras, St. Louis Priory School
If a Girl Kept All Her Kings in the Back Row

THIRD PLACE
Amina Aser, Parkway West High School
My Lost Art Project

Congratulations to our 2019 Winners!

FIRST PLACE
Megan McGhee, Kirkwood High School
Oldest Moon

SECOND PLACE
Ann Zhang, John Burroughs School
Doomsday: The Asian Superstore

THIRD PLACE
Rachel Lyu, St. Louis University High School
Untitled (The World After Wine)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Christina Giudici, Nerinx Hall High School
Rocket Science

Sarah Corrigan, Visitation Academy
Through the Cracks

Madeline Burns, Parkway West High School
February, in a White Nissan Versa