Teenreads.com -- Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award

2002 Winner

2001 Winner

***A CALL FOR POETRY****

The Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award
for Young Writers

The Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award is open to all high school students across the country. Each young writer may submit two poems on any subject and in any form as long as their submission does not exceed 10 pages in length. The deadline for entering this annual contest is May 1, 2003.

The award was established in 1983 in Poughkeepsie, New York, by the Seaman family in honor of their daughter and sister, Claudia, a young poet. With the help of the Community Foundation of Dutchess County and the Teenreads.com website, the award, a national competition open to all students in grades 9 through 12, is held each year to encourage, support, and promote young writers. With a $500 cash prize and publication of the winning poem in the literary journal HANGING LOOSE, it is hoped that the Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award will help keep interest in reading and writing poetry alive and well at the high school level. We hope that English and writing teachers and librarians and other mentors working with young people will use the award as an incentive and as evidence of the viability of a literary life.

Thank you, mentors, for your help in getting the word out to young writers. And thank you, young poets, for participating.

Here's all the information:

Eligibility: Students in grades 9 - 12 attending public and private schools.

Submission: Each participant may submit two poems.

Deadline: All entries must be received by May 1, 2003.

Award: $500 and publication in Hanging Loose.

Award Announcement: August 15, 2003.

Each entry must contain the following information:

• Student name, address, and phone number.

• School name, address, and phone number.

• The name of the student's English or writing teacher.

Mail entries to:

The Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award
c/o
The Community Foundation of Dutchess County
80 Washington Street, Suite 201
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845-452-3077

or submitted through Teenreads.com via e-mail at: TalkBack@teenreads.com

For additional information, contact Donna Seaman, 800-545-2433, ex. 5754. Email: dseaman7@aol.com.

address unknown

it is like unbraiding your hair
slowly before a mahogany mirror
in an old hotel
the rug needs a sweep
it has rained outside
and the window is open
you haven't seen your face
in days, months, years
it is like receiving post cards
from yourself
forwarded
three times

Claudia Ann Seaman

Winner of the 2002 Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award for Young Writers

"Jewel of the British Empire"
by Aditi Gupta

My mother grew in a world

of mango trees and pomegranate blossoms,
laced with milky sharp jasmine

and so many flowers
I can't even name
in English:

a flower christened Queen of the Night----
large, sunshiny, and deadly,
and japani fruit that looks like a fairytale,
lobed and orange.

She chased away jaded parrots
that would not believe in scarecrows.

And learned the art

of burying her thoughts
alive if they did not please

or forgetting her desires
with 22 karat gold,

in city streets where beggars
--severed limbs and toothpick children
swarm like flies; death so close
in their faces that life is hard to find.

Where peacocks cry in the rain,
dancing jewels on withered village buildings:
blue green mirages of wealth,
mourning for the feet
they gave away.