Welcome to the ninth annual Columbia Granger's World of Poetry® poetry contest. Here at Columbia University Press we celebrate Poetry Month each April by hosting a poetry contest for high school students, grades 9 - 12. We encourage you to celebrate the wonderful world of poetry by exploring the incredible Granger's resource and spreading the word to your high school students about our contest.


- send your submissions to hp2356@columbia.edu

- the submission deadline is Wednesday, April 30th, 2025

- the contest is open to students in grades 9-12 only

- students must use Granger's to find a poem that inspires an original piece

- students must state clearly at the top of their submission: "my poem was inspired by (poem title) by (poet)"

- all submissions must be original pieces. Any submissions that demonstrate plagiarism will be excluded

- submissions should be no longer than 30 lines total (not including line breaks)

- all submissions will be judged by staff of Columbia University Press

- prizes will be awarded to 3 students

- prizes will be $100 worth of CUP books for each winning student (chosen by the student) and the student's library (to be chosen by the school's librarian)