Calling all Poets: Enter the “We Are Water” Poetry Contest
Deadline: Oct. 17, 2025
Residents, age 10 and older, of the Tri-County Area (Ingham, Clinton & Eaton Counties) are invited to enter the “We Are Water” Poetry Contest, which will take place from Aug. 15 through Oct. 17, 2025. Five winning poems will be featured on Poetry Signs along a walking path in Lansing’s Tollgate Drain Wetlands, and each winner will receive a $150 cash award.
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate water, the universal solvent essential to all life on Earth, especially clean, drinkable water, and increase awareness of the need to protect Michigan’s freshwater rivers, lakes, and ground water.
Contest Guidelines:
- The contest is limited to people living in the Tri-County Area (Ingham, Clinton & Eaton counties), age 10 & older
- Participants can submit up to 3 poems, each 25 lines or less.
- Writers’ Strategy: Spend time walking in the Tollgate Drain Wetlands, 1101 N. Fairview Ave., Lansing, Michigan, 48912, notebook in hand, recording what you see, hear, smell and taste in the world around you. How does being around water, being in the wetlands, shape or change your perceptions and language. What kind of poem can you write here that you can’t write anywhere else? For writing prompts, visit: https://www.ruelainestokes.com/wearewater
- Submit each poem individually, by Oct. 17, 2025 to PoetryPathway71@gmail.com Type your name in the Subject line, along with the title of your poem. Attach 2 copies of your poem to your email (in a Microsoft Word document): one w/ your full name, your age, address, phone # and email address, and the other with no identifying information.
Prizes:
- Poem—The winning 5 poems will each receive a cash award of $150 and be featured on Poetry Signs along walking paths in Lansing’s Tollgate Drain Wetlands.
For Contest Guidelines & Resources, visit: https://www.ruelainestokes.com/wearewater
This project was made possible by support from The Academy of American Poets, The Arts Council of Greater Lansing, the Ingham County Drain Commissioner, the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), the RCAH Center for Poetry at MSU, & the Lansing Poetry Club.