FRESNO COUNTY \u2013 Following the dawn of National Poetry Month, local writers are encouraged to put pen to paper \u2014 or rather, fingers to keyboards \u2014 for a showdown of haikus, sonnets and everything in between.<\/p>\n
From now until April 30, poets of all experience levels can submit one of their works into the Fresno County Public Library\u2019s 27th Annual Poetry Contest. Continuing nearly three decades of expression and community interaction, library staff are hoping to grow the number of submissions and boost Fresno County voices this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis contest is about creating an opportunity for people to participate in something creative,\u201d said Susan Renfro, Marketing & Community Relations Officer for FCPL, in an emailed statement. \u201cNot everyone has a platform to share their work, and this gives residents of all ages a way to be part of something larger and have their writing recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poems can be submitted on FCPL\u2019s website, with a full list of submission rules available. The contest is divided into four age groups: grades 3-5, grades 6-8, grades 9-12 and adults ages 18 and older.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As submissions come in, they will be available for community members to read on the website. Once winners are announced at the contest\u2019s awards ceremony in August, winning poems will remain on the website and will be shared to the public.<\/p>\n
Submissions will be judged throughout May and July by a panel of judges, including poets Mariah Bosch, Aideed Medina, Jessica Turney-Lua and Angela Chaidez Vincent. These judges are returning from previous years, and Renfro shared that FCPL maintains strong connections with the poetry community, in part, thanks to library manager James Tyner\u2019s previous service as Fresno\u2019s Poet Laureate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the ceremony typically takes place in June, Renfro explained that June elections followed by Summer at Your Library programming will keep meeting rooms full for the first part of the summer. On the day of the awards ceremony, first place winners will be invited to read their poems aloud, and all winners will receive gift cards to local and national booksellers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The FCPL website lists the prizes for each category at $200 for first place, $100 for second place and $50 for third place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Details on the date, time and location will be posted to social media and on the website once more details are finalized.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her statement, Renfro said that for all 27 years, one of the goals of the poetry contest has been to use National Poetry Month to engage with the community in a meaningful way, while highlighting the level of local talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Renfro also referenced the county\u2019s recognition as a strong poetry community, making note of legendary local names like William Saroyan former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine, as another reason for holding the annual contest and helping keep that legacy alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs one of the oldest forms of written expression, poetry continues to be a powerful and accessible way for people to share their perspectives and experiences,\u201d Renfro said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Participation has grown over the last couple of years, with 210 submissions in 2024 and 299 in 2025. Renfro said that this year, the goal is to reach 400 submissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO COUNTY \u2013 Following the dawn of National Poetry Month, local writers are encouraged to put pen to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,622,111062,114,113,2690],"class_list":{"0":"post-248974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-county","10":"tag-fresno-county-public-library","11":"tag-fresno-headlines","12":"tag-fresno-news","13":"tag-poetry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}