Youth Poetry Voices

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April is National Poetry Month! Join the City of Menlo Park and the Menlo Park Library Foundation for our Annual Menlo Park Youth Poetry Voices exhibition for aspiring young poets. This exhibition will allow youth from first grade through twelfth grade to share their original poetry with the Menlo Park Community.

All poets will have the opportunity to read their poem at a reception hosted by the library and have their work published in a commemorative anthology that will be displayed in our Local Authors Collection. They will also be recognized as a group before the City Council on the night of the reception. Featured poets will be invited to present their poems directly to City Council. 

Submissions will be accepted between April 1 and April 30 with a reception and City Council presentation on May 12. 

More information

Submissions will be organized into four groups based on grade level:

  • Grades 1-2
  • Grades 3-5
  • Grades 6-8
  • Grades 9-12

Please submit your poems using the online submission form. All entries must be submitted by April 30.

Our review panel will meet during the first week of May to review the submissions and select the featured poems that will be presented to the City Council on May 12. Entrants selected to read their poems in front of City Council will be notified during the first week of May.

All poems that meet the submission guidelines will be published in a commemorative anthology that will be available for all of our young poets. All young poets will be welcome to share their voices at the Reception held at the library prior to the City Council Meeting.

Submission Guidelines

  1. Participant must live or go to school in Menlo Park.
  2. Poems must be original submissions, previously unpublished, and submitted by the creator of the original work. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for presentation at the reception or publication in the commemorative anthology.
  3. Limit one poem per person.
  4. In accordance with the Menlo Park Library and Belle Haven Library Use Guidelines, submissions with content that is deemed to be “prejudice or intolerance of any variety, including derogatory comments, hate speech, and/or repeated microaggressions toward others” will not be accepted.
  5. All poems must be submitted between April 1 and April 30, 2026. Late poems will not be considered for presentation at the reception or publication in the commemorative anthology.
  6. All participants must submit their poem along using the online submission form; any poems not attached to a submission form will not be considered for presentation at the reception OR for publication in the commemorative anthology.
  7. By submitting a poem, the participant agrees to release to the City of Menlo Park and the Menlo Park Library Foundation nonexclusive rights to reproduce the submitted work in any language, formats, media, and editions.

Submissions open April 1.

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