Honors Northeast poetry contest seeking entries

Mercedes

By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director

Honors Northeast, the honors program of Northeast Texas Community College announces a call for poems and images that can accent or enliven our sense of the surroundings, people, the culture, and/or the history of Northeast Texas.

Adult poetry winners will take home $100 and $50 for first and second place. Full-time student poetry winners for first, second, third, and fourth places will receive $400, $300, $200 and $100 respectively (last year's winner, Mercedes Collins, is pictured above). For images, first place will earn $70, second, $20, and third, $10.  Anyone of any age is welcome to enter the contest.  Any genre of poem, and at any length, can compete.

For the third time, the contest will include an image division.  A contestant may submit an original scene photograph, or photograph of their own original painting, along with two sentences explaining its location in Northeast Texas and meaning.  To win an award, contestants must be willing to read their poems, or present their images at the Friday 4 September Poetry Zoom Reading at 11:00 AM. Contestants will receive a link to participate. Two committees of NTCC faculty judges will determine the top poems, and images.

To compete, send your poem and/or image, principle occupation, and telephone number to Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, at ayox@ntcc.edu by noon on Friday, 28 August.  Email Dr. Yox as well with any preliminary questions. For images please send only one JPEG image from 500 KB to 4 MB of a scene in Northeast Texas.  Contestants may consult the poems and images of all past winners since 2008 at www.ntcc.edu/honorspoems.  The Honors Northeast site also contains prize-winning essays and feature-length films on Northeast Texas.

This year the contest is beholden to a Whatley Employment Enhancement Grant award, and patrons of Honors Northeast.