The Mississippi Poetry Society (MPS) recently made one of its very best decisions to invite students in grades 9-12 to join the Society free of charge.
The Mississippi Poetry Society, founded in 1932 in Jackson, desires to keep the art of poetry thriving through branch meetings, contests, annual festivals, open mic events, publications, and the website misspoetry.net. MPS has four branches: North, Central, West, and South.
MPS sponsors an annual contest with numerous categories and a student contest (no entry fee for student contest). The winning poems from both contests are published in the annual journal. All poets whose winning poems appear in the journal receive a free copy. Full details about these contests are posted on our website, usually in November. These guidelines are made available to the schools earlier than this. Students may enter both contests. MPS also holds an annual festival, nearly always in April. There are workshops, keynote speakers, fabulous meals, poetry readings, awards presentations, and door prize presentations throughout the fest. Adult attendees especially look forward to readings by the student contest honorees. The most recent festival was held in Brandon, Mississippi, in late April; Central Branch hosted.
MPS publishes an anniversary anthology every five years. All members are encouraged to send poems for this publication. The last one published in 2022.
Teachers are asked to share this information with students.
For more information, please contact Janice Canerdy, Immediate Past President of MPS, at jlcanerdy@yahoo.com or call (662) 538-8630.
Please also visit misspoetry.net for information about MPS leaders, publications, membership, news, and more.