Pulitzer Centre 2022 Fighting Words Poetry Contest for Secondary School Students

How can poetry be an effective response to current events and underreported stories? How can we use poetry to connect global issues to our local and personal contexts? Students are invited to explore these questions and make their voices heard in their entries to the Fighting Words Poetry Contest.

• Table of Content
• About Pulitzer Centre
• Fighting Words Poetry Contest
• Aim and Benefits of Fighting Words Poetry Contest
• Requirements for Fighting Words Poetry Contest Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for Fighting Words Poetry Contest
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Pulitzer Centre

  The Pulitzer Center raises awareness of underreported global issues through direct support for quality journalism across all media platforms and a unique program of education and public outreach.  Founded in 2006, we are now the largest single source of money for global enterprise reporting—and the only one incorporating this reporting into comprehensive educational programs that extend the impact of the reporting and allow students and the public to engage directly on the issues. The result is sustained reporting and outreach on topics that range from land rights, clim... continue reading

Fighting Words Poetry Contest

Aim and Benefits of Fighting Words Poetry Contest

• 1st place: $300, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
• 2nd place: $200, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
• 3rd place: $100, publication on the Pulitzer Center website
• Finalists: $75, publication on the Pulitzer Center website

Requirements for Fighting Words Poetry Contest Qualification

Any current K-12 student in the United States or internationally may enter. Students may write in any language, and are welcome to submit multilingual poems. Judges will have reading fluency in English and Spanish.

Interview date, Process and Venue for Fighting Words Poetry Contest

Poems will be judged by the following criteria:

1. Success of the poem on its own terms (craft, linguistic style, emotion, etc.)

• Questions to ask yourself:
  • What response(s) do I want to evoke in my reader? Have I chosen the best words to evoke this response?
  • Have I used poetic devices (e.g. repetition, imagery, metaphor), or chosen not to use them, to achieve a specific effect?

2. Successful inclusion of lines quoted from a Pulitzer Center story

• Questions to ask yourself:
  • Have I chosen lines that add something important to the poem?
  • Are the lines integrated into the poem smoothly, so their presence feels natural?

3. Thoughtful choice of perspective and respectful treatment of subject matter

• Questions to ask yourself:
  • What is my relationship to the story I have chosen? How can I make a personal connection?
  • Why am I writing from the perspective I have chosen? What other perspectives could I choose, and how would those choices change the poem?
  • If the subjects of the story I have chosen read my poem, how might they feel?

Pulitzer Centre Fighting Words Poetry Contest 2022 for Secondary School Students

Application Deadline

How to Apply

Go to the Pulitzer Center website and select a story (see the “Suggested Stories” tab above for a curated list). Write a poem of any form and length that includes lines from the story. Include an epigraph in the following format: With lines from “STORY TITLE” by JOURNALIST NAME, a Pulitzer Center reporting project.

SUBMIT YOUR POEM USING THIS ENTRY FORM!

The form will ask for some basic information, and you will upload your poem to the form as an attachment. You may also upload an audio or video file of yourself performing your poem; this file is optional, but the text file is required.

If you have questions about these guidelines or if the entry form is not accessible to you, please email [email protected].

For more details, visit Pulitzer Centre website.