Georgia Teens Write to Earn the Title of 'Bard'

Who knows, maybe your teenager could be the next Cocteau! Atlanta Magazine reports that the Poet Laureate’s Prize, sponsored by Georgia's Poet Laureate, Judson Mitcham, and the Georgia Council for the Arts, will be presented annually for an original poem written by a state high school student.

This spring, Mitcham and the Georgia Council for the Arts debut the Poet Laureate’s Prize, to be awarded for an original poem written by a state high school student. The award, which will be presented annually, is “designed to bring recognition to the careful art of the written word, which is particularly important in a time that increasingly subordinates word to image,” says Mitcham, who has taught writing at the University of Georgia and Mercer University, run the Emory Summer Writers Program, and been inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

Mitcham himself came to poetry later in life, after earning a PhD in psychology and teaching in that field for thirty years at Fort Valley State University in central Georgia. “An involvement in reading and creating poems can enrich any life, and may be especially important for young people developing skills that can guide them toward understanding themselves and the world,” he says.

The Poet Laureate’s Prize is intended to complement the National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud contest, which features recitation and is administered here by Georgia Council for the Arts. [...]

Check out these poems by the winner and finalists at Atlanta Magazine!