Beverly Hopkins Poetry Contest for High School Students

Congratulations to our 2021 Finalists!

Eric Boles, Parkway South High School
Dear Mr. Mammoth
Evolutionary Lottery Winners Use their Astonishing Brain Power to Kill Each Other

Cedric Bruges, St. Louis Priory School
Building Sandcastles

Kat Crawford, Kirkwood High School
How Long Does It Last?

Thomas Daniel, St. Louis Priory School
Contentment

Sofia Erlin, Clayton High School
Winter Is Coming
Amputation

Mackenzie Hahn, Red Bud High School
Thematic Free-Verse

Julia Joseph, Visitation Academy
Days Again
The Child

Carmen Lumpkins, Webster Groves High School
Who Took My Soul?

Sarah Corrigan, Visitation Academy
Through the Cracks

Ainsley Martin, Visitation Academy
To My Future Spouse

Anna Padousis, Visitation Academy
Dollgirl
Gypsy

Grace Ruo, Hazelwood West High School
Identity
Strange Fruit
On Realizing I am Black

Oviya Srihari, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Advice from Your Daily Horoscope
Partition as Narrated by an American Daughter

Brooklyn Amira Stubbert, Jefferson High School
A Touch that Wasn’t Wanted

Rachel Voss, Fort Zumwalt South High School
Moonshine Boy
Fortune Misfortune

Kate Wexell, O’Fallon Township High School
Political Fugue

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

SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED

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

Winning poems will be published in Saint Louis Poetry Center’s annual chapbook, of which prize winners receive a free copy.

2021 Contest Judge:
Marjorie Maddox

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, 2021

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