Austin’s youngest poets will be presenting their poems Tuesday at the Hormel Historic Home.

Finalists of the annual Richard Eberhart Poetry Contest will be sharing their poems at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the Historic Hormel Home. In January and February, students created an original poem to be submitted and reviewed for the contest. A panel of judges reviewed the all submitted poems and announced the finalists at the end of March.

“A Night with our Poets” is a joint event featuring the readings of the Eberhart Poetry Contest finalists and the works of Sharon Chmielarz, Minnesota Poet, who is sponsored by the Friends of the Austin Public Library. The event is open to the public.

The Richard Eberhart Poetry Contest is sponsored by the Austin Public Education Foundation and coordinated by the Gifted and Talented Education program in Austin. Winners of the contest receive a cash award of $25 for kindergarten, $50 for elementary and intermediate, $100 for middle school, or $200 for high school, funded by the Austin Public Education Foundation.

Richard Eberhart, from 1904 to 2005, was a Pulitzer-prize winning poet, who emerged in the 1930s as a modern stylist. Eberhart’s childhood started in Austin, where his father was the vice president of the Hormel Meat Packing Company. The Eberhart Family Poetry Contest began in 2005 when the children of Richard Eberhart established the contest to honor their parents. The Eberhart Family donated the endowment funds necessary to generate the income for the annual contest awards. For questions about the event or the competition, contact David Wolff at 507-460-1912.