Student Contest 2025

EKPHRASTIC
Submission Period: October 1, 2024 - January 15, 2025

For the third year, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets joins forces with the Woodson Art Museum, inviting high school students to participate in a statewide ekphrastic poetry competition. Students will write and submit poems inspired by artwork images from the Woodson Art Museum’s collection. Entries accepted October 1, 2024, through January 15, 2025.

An installation of the winning poems and collection artworks will follow in April during National Poetry Month and the Museum will hold a reception for the winning poets, their families, and educators in April, date and time TBD. In addition, winning poems are announced on WFOP’s contest results page.

Cash prizes:
1st place $75
2nd place $50
3rd place $25

Submission Period: October 1, 2024-January 15, 2025. Poems arriving after 11:59 p.m on January 15, 2025 will not be considered.

Submission Guidelines:

• Students may enter ONE original poem

• Maximum length: 24 lines (which includes stanza breaks, but not the title).

• Line length: 60-character limit, including spaces and indents.

• We cannot consider longer poems, multiple entries, or collaborative poems (written by more than one student).

• Students need to be Wisconsin High School students in current attendance.

To Submit:

Poems must be submitted via e-mail submissions. In the subject line, write: “WFOP Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Lastname Firstname” – for example: WFOP Ekphrastic Poetry Contest SmithJoan.

In the body of the email, include:

• The student’s name, home address, e-mail address if available, telephone number, student’s current grade in school, and the title of the poem.

• The teacher’s name, e-mail address, the school’s name, school’s complete mailing address, and school phone number (homeschoolers: indicate homeschool association, if applicable).

• Important! At the bottom, include the following statement: “This is my original work” followed by the student’s name typed.

• Send the poem as an attachment: rtf, doc or docx. Name the attachment the same as the title of the poem with no identifying information.

• The attached document must contain only your poem and its title. Do not put your name or any other information in the document.

• Please format poems in Times New Roman 12.

  • Email submissions to Freesia McKee at wfopstudent@gmail.com. 

Email acknowledgements of submissions will be sent. If an acknowledgement has not been received within two weeks after submission, please contact the contest coordinator at the above email address.

Winners will be notified via email and posted at: wfop.org/contests-results.

About Freesia McKee

Freesia McKee is a poet who grew up in Milwaukee. Since 2023, she has served as an Assistant Professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Freesia writes about history, place, gender, and genre, and her work has appeared in The Journal, Fugue, Puerto del Sol, Cleaver, ellipses, Mobius, Stoneboat, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal as well as two chapbooks, How Distant the City (Headmistress Press) and Hummingbird Vows (Bottlecap Press). Freesia served as the Fall 2022 Poet in Residence at Ripon College. Her scholarly research interests include empathy in the classroom and ecopoetics pedagogy. 

Artwork Images for Ekphrastic Poetry Contest

Additional resources are available on the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s website.