NJ H.S. Poetry Contest

Since 1991 the Dodge Poetry Program has been the major supporter of the annual New Jersey High School Student Poetry Contest. Until 2007, the contest was organized and administered by the Newark division of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. This year, for the first time, the contest was not only sponsored by, but also administered by the Dodge Poetry Program.

Our three Judges ― Patricia Bender, Robert Carnevale, and Jack Wiler ― have selected twenty winners from nearly 850 submissions from 163 schools in seventeen New Jersey counties, the largest number the contest has received in over a decade.

On March 25, 2008 the winners of the 19th Annual New Jersey High School Poetry Contest read  their prize-winning poems in Step Up to the Mic at the Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Click here to see the colorful flier that announced this event.