The Beverly Public Library offers an annual poetry contest for middle and high school students who live, or attend school, in Beverly. After the poems are checked to see if they meet the guidelines, they are submitted to a panel of judges, who are local published poets. The judges are given about a month to read the entries and select finalists. The Teen librarian contacts the finalists (and their teachers) and invites everyone to the ceremony in mid-April.
Finalists will be invited to read their poems and winners will be announced at the Teen Poetry Reading and Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Cash prizes will be awarded in two age categories, grades 6-8 and grades 9-12. All finalists receive cash prizes, in varying levels based on their placement of Honorable Mention, Third, Second, and First Prize.
Each year, a total of about 30 poems are selected. These poems are published in a booklet that is distributed at the ceremony, as well as kept in the library’s permanent collection.
The contest was open from January 3 through March 7. Finalists will be contacted in mid-April.
For more information, contact Katie Nelson at 978-921-6062.
Thanks to the Friends of the Beverly Public Library whose generosity makes this contest possible.