The National Federation Of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS), Inc. Manningham Trust Student Poetry Contest Rules for the 2023 annual competition are available.
Ten prizes will be awarded in each division:
First Place – $75, Second Place – $50, Third Place – $40, Fourth Place – $35,
Fifth Place – $30, and five Honorable Mentions – $10 each.
All winning poems will be published in the Manningham Trust Poetry Student Award Anthology. Winners will receive complimentary copies. The schools of each winning student will receive a complimentary copy for the school library.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, there were no awards given for 2022. Any student who submitted a poem to the 2022 contest is encouraged to resubmit their poem for the 2023 contest.
There is no entry fee.
- There are two divisions: Grade 6-8 (Junior Division) and Grades 9-12 (Senior Division). Competition is open to all qualified students. Poems may have been previously published and/or have won previous awards.
- The competition is open to all USA students in grades 6 – 12. Public, private, and homeschools are eligible for entry by individual submission. Individual poets may only submit one poem.
- All entries must be entered through Submittable, and the proper application form must be completed, indicating poet’s contact information, school attended, and grade student is currently in. All students can open a Submittable account for no cost and there is no entry fee for the contest. Go to www.nfsps.submittable.com and check the appropriate grade level to submit.
- Each poem must be neatly typed or computer-generated and have no more than 35 lines including space lines with no line having more than 60 characters including spaces and punctuation. Student’s one poem entered should appear on a single sheet. There should be no large or unusual fonts or illustrations. Times New Roman is the suggested font. No font larger than 12 point should be used. Larger fonts also make it impossible to confine the poem to one page, which is required.
- The poem submitted must not have ID information. There should be no indication of prior awards granted or publication information. Winners may be asked for that information to be provided at the time of publication.
- Each entrant must make a declaration of originality. The statement will be included in the Submittable application “I certify that this poem is my original work and has not been copied in whole or part from any author’s poems in print or posted on the Internet. Signed: _____________________”
- Entries must be received on Submittable between Sept. 15, and Nov. 15.
Notice of winners will be sent to each state’s Manningham (Youth) chair. Awards (certificates, checks, anthologies) will also be mailed to the student. Each member state is responsible for celebrating their state’s winners. The top winning poems will be read at the Annual NFSPS Convention held in June 2023.
Any questions can be directed to nfspssecretary@gmail.com.