Bold Poets Society Poetry Slam
Enter your original poetry for a chance to win prizes!
April is National Poetry Month and both Growing Bolder and Florida Blue Medicare appreciate the role the arts play in creating a full and rich life. We believe in the power of our words to express, to explain, to appreciate, to create, and to connect us with each other.
So, step up to the mic or pick up your pen or keyboard. Take what’s in your heart or on your mind and share it with us as an entry to the Bold Poets Society Slam.
Check out the Winners!
Rules:
Poems should be original work and short, no longer than 12 lines if written and no longer than 2 1/2 minutes if spoken. Poems may include free verse, rhymes, etc., and must include the words growing, bolder, florida and blue, in no specific context.
Submissions must be received by 11:59pm on April 16, 2022. Winners will be announced on April 29, 2022.
Winners agree to read or perform their work in an online Celebration of Poetry event in April.
Judges:
Shawn Welcome
City of Orlando Poet Laureate Shawn Welcome is a content writer and nationally known performance poet. He founded the Diverse Word poetry open mic in 2006.
Susan Lilley
The 2009 winner of the Rita Dove Poetry Award, Lilley is an author, poet and the interim English Department Chair at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, FL. She has taught at Rollins College and the University of Central Florida and has an MFA from from Stonecoast at University of Southern Maine.
Prizes:
🏆 First Place (Written Category): Placement of Poem in the Growing Bolder May 2022 Digital Digest, with link to winner’s website, and featured in a Growing Bolder Insider weekly email newsletter and shared with Growing Bolder’s nearly 1 million Social Media followers
🏆 First Place (Spoken Category): Performance of Poem to air in an episode of the Growing Bolder podcast/radio show, airing nationally on NPR One and podcast platforms, featured in a Growing Bolder Insider weekly email and shared with Growing Bolder’s nearly 1 million Social Media followers
🏆 Second Place (Written & Spoken): Poems featured in Growing Bolder Insider weekly email newsletter and shared with Growing Bolder’s nearly 1 million Social Media followers
🏆 Third Place (Written & Spoken): Growing Bolder Mug & Postcard Book and shared with Growing Bolder’s nearly 1 million Social Media followers
PLUS….bragging rights as the first Bold Poets Society Slam Champions!
Need Inspiration?
Check out Bill Shafer’s and Marc Middleton’s examples.
Submit your entry to the spoken or written categories below:
By clicking Submit, I acknowledge that the content of this submission is original work I created, previously unpublished, and that I give Growing Bolder, LLC first electronic rights to it, which means:
-Growing Bolder LLC has the right to publish the piece in digital format and broadcast formats
-Growing Bolder LLC is the first publisher of the piece
-After the piece is published once, all rights revert back to you.
Additionally, I hereby hold harmless and release and forever discharge Growing Bolder, LLC any of its affiliated companies, legal representatives, agents, successors or assigns from all claims, demands, and other causes of action which I, my heirs, representatives, executors, administrators or any other persons acting on my behalf or on behalf of my estate have or may by reason of this authorization. I agree to receive email updates and newsletters from Growing Bolder.
Florida Blue and Florida Blue Medicare are Independent Licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Florida Blue is a trade name of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc.