Your Voice Matters

National Poetry Month is celebrated each April and was first started in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. This was done in an effort to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. Like in many other venues people with disabilities voices are often muffled or not heard at all. We here at Thisabled Nation want your voices heard, loud and clear. Your poetry is just as beautiful and important as that of others. Therefore, we are offering our readers an opportunity to have their poetry included on our website and in our poetry contest. We know you have what it takes to write amazing poetry! 

The Prizes for Poetry Contest

The Rules:

Absolutely all work submitted must be original and written by the person submitting the work. 

Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. Please limit your use of clichés, such as, roses are red, etc.

The individual poet is free to write whatever type of poem they choose. Such as, rhymed poetry, free verse, narrative poetry, haiku, pastoral poetry, or even sonnets.

The poet should keep the length of the poem to no more Than 500 words. This means no epic poems. This will offer us the greatest opportunity to read through all the poems and decide which we will post. Please note that we do not post your poem it does not mean we did not find it amazing or worthy.

Do not double space.

Do not type in all capitals the poem was adhered to basic rules of capitalization.

Include only your name and not other identifying information such as your address or phone number in your poem. Thursday

The poem can be about any topic that the author wishes. Here are some suggestions, if you do not already have some ideas in mind.

Coronavirus

Love

The Americans with Disability Is Act, 30 Years

My Disability

Freedom

Dark Days

Thankful

Family

These are just suggestions of course. During National Poetry Month it is your words that matter most.

Anyone can enter the poetry contest but we would prefer to hear from people with disabilities and/or their family members.

All entries will be judged by our National Poetry Month group. Many who have disabilities or family members with disabilities.

PUBLICATION

Contestants who reach the finalist stage of the contest will be given the opportunity to be featured in a poetry anthology. Even poems disqualified from the contest may still be eligible for publication. By submitting a poem to our contest, you accept that your poem will appear online and in print. We reserve the right to not publish a poem for any reason.

COPYRIGHT

All publications are copyrighted with the U.S. Library of Congress as compilations. All individual poetry remains the property of the author.

Please submit your poem as per the rules in this document to:
Javier at Thisabled@gmail.com no later than April 20, 2020. In the subject line please write poetry contest.