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By Andrea Malo

Gifted Services for Talent Develop./Mentor. Coordinator

April is National Poetry Month. Started by the Academy of American Poets in April of 1996 National Poetry Month is meant to be a celebration of poetry recognizing that poetry plays an important role in our culture. People across the world will celebrate poetry month and it has become the largest celebration of poetry not just nationally in our country, but across the world. Which means, there is no better time than the month of April to celebrate and recognize the student poets of Austin Public Schools.

Austin Public Schools has a 19-year tradition of recognizing the talents and creativity of our students through the annual Austin Public Schools Poetry Contest. In the late winter of each year, information is shared with students about how they can enter their unique poem. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to participate in the contest. Once poems are submitted, they are blindly reviewed by the poetry judges, the Austin High School Language Arts Department. Each year the judges share how difficult it is to determine the top three finalists and winner for each school. The poems that are entered include imagery and are expressive and the tone ranges from reflective to humorous.

This year we will recognize the 23 finalists with a Night of Poetry on Wednesday, April 16 at the MacPhail Recital Hall in the Austin High School Annex at 6:30 p.m. Each of the finalists will be invited to read their poem at the event. Each of the poets will receive a certificate and a book of poetry. At the end of the evening, the first place winners from each of the buildings will be announced and they will receive a cash prize. It is through the support of the Austin Public Education Foundation and the Friends of the Library that students receive awards for their poetry.

While poetry is a unit of study for our students in their language arts courses, there are other opportunities for our students to learn about being a poet or author. Young Authors Young Artists or YAYA is a program presented each year by the Southeast Service Cooperative. A small group of students in grades 6-8 have an opportunity to attend in the fall of the year, and a small group of fourth and fifth grade students can attend in the spring of the year. Through this opportunity students can learn and work with authors, poets, illustrators, artists, and journalists to expose them to the joy of writing and creating.

We wish to congratulate all of this year’s poetry finalists and winners along with all of those that submitted a poem for this year’s contest. The talent of our students is great, and they should be celebrated and recognized for their work.