River of Words FAQ
Great question! The theme of the contest is "watersheds." If you don't know what a watershed is, click here! Basically, a watershed is land that all drains into the same body of water; every plant, animal, person, and object you see in your day-to-day life is part of your watershed.
The goal of River of Words is to connect youth with their watersheds - the environments they live in - through engagement in the art and poetry of place. That means we look for art and poetry that shows a real connection to the world around you. For some folks, that means a lot of green and open space; for others, that means a city environment, with different noises, smells, and sights. We're looking for youth to show us what only they see about their world.
Also, check out our "What is River of Words looking for in art and poetry?" page, click here.
For inspiration and examples of past winning and finalist poetry and art, click here.
Children 5-20 years of age, who are not yet in college, may enter the River of Words annual contest.
Each year, U.S. entries with the exception of Georgia and Arizona entries must be submittted through our online portal by December 1. International entries must be submitted by February 1.
Arizona entries are due February 1st, 2020. Mail art and physical submissions to:
Living River of Words
Pima County Natural Resources
Parks and Recreations
3500 W. River Road
Tucson, AZ 85741Georgia entries are due February 1st, 2020. Mail art and physical submissions to:
Georgia River of Words
2 Martin Luther King Jr Drive
Suite 1462 E
Atlanta, GA 30334No; the contest is free to enter.
Consider how many/which student(s) originally created the poem or artwork. For example, poems and art that have been revised as the result of a workshop, or generated by one individual as the result of a class-wide exercise, generally have one original, primary creator. If your child is the original and primary creator of a poem/artwork, they may submit that artwork under their own name and, if that artwork is awarded a prize, your child will receive the prize.
If your child has a piece of artwork that has multiple primary, original creators (for example, a painting more than one student worked on in a similar timespan, or a poem where more than one student contributed a stanza), you may submit the art, but one child must be selected as a representative of the group. They are eligible, but only one entry form may accompany each poem or artwork. Should the poem or artwork be chosen as a winning entry, one child will receive the prize as a representative of the group.
Yes. Students can submit as many poems and/or pieces of artwork as they wish (including poem/art combinations.) Our online portal allows multiple works (art or poetry) at a time. Multiple submissions of Online Student Entries are allowed.
The student's parent or legal guardian may enter the student's work into the ROW contest as an individual entry, OR the student's work can be submitted through their school, environmental club, scout troop, art organization, or any other such group with a parent or legal guardian's permission. Students who are 18 years or older may enter on their own. Facilitators in charge of a group of student entries should submit all entries at one time thorough the online portal.
Which entry form should be used? How should entries be submitted - individual or group?
When completing a Student Entry Form, there will be an option to designate the entry as a Individual or Group entry.
Individual Entry?
Any art or poetry entry submitted to River of Words without a Facilitator should be designated as an Individual Entry. All Student Entry Forms require the consent and permission of the student's parent or legal guardian (if under 18 years old) before being submitted to River of Words.
Please note: there is no limit to the number of art or poetry entries that can be submitted by one student. The online submission portal allows multiple works (art or poetry) to be submitted at one time.
Group Entry?
A teacher, educator, or community or group leader may assist their group of students in entering the River of Words contest by acting as a Facilitator. As a Facilitator, this educator will be the first point of contact should the River of Words contest management have a question or decision regarding a student's art or poetry entry. Traditionally, the Facilitator often submits student art and poetry created by students in the Facilitator's "classroom" as part of an environmental literacy activity/curriculum or creative project. Under no circumstances is the Facilitator to submit student work to River of Words without first receiving the consent and permission of a student's parent or legal guardian. All Student Entry Forms marked as a Group Entry must include their Facilitator's contact information.
Facilitator Form
When submitting their students' art and poetry to River of Words, the Facilitator must also complete complete the online Facilitator Form and a class list.
Questions?
If you have any questions about whether to designate a student's entry as group or individual, please contact River of Words at rowinfo@stmarys-ca.edu.
Files must be less than 5 MB. Allowed file types are jpg, jpeg, png, and pdf. Since the image will be reviewed by art judges during the contest selection process, we strongly encourage you—when possible—to photograph or scan the artwork at the highest quality available, given size parameters. Please ensure that the photos are of high quality, not blurry, and genuinely depict the student's creation. You will be contacted by email if the artwork does not meet these criteria.
Poems should be no longer than 32 lines in length. The title of the poem should be centered at the top of the page. The entire poem should be printed in black, in a legible font such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, etc. If handwritten, the poem should be written neatly in a standard color of ink (black, blue, etc.) At the bottom of the poem, please include only the student's age and grade. Do not put the student's name, school, or state information on the page with the poem; all that information will be collected in the online entry portal.
Please see the image below for an example of what a submission that follows these formatting rules would look like:
No. However, if the parent or student over 18 reaches out to River of Words and requests their artwork returned, River of Will will mail it back or a high quality color reproductions will be returned instead). By pre-arrangement with a Regional Coordinator, submissions from an entire state can be returned to one address. In states with a ROW State Coordinator, individual entries are returned to the coordinator. Many states award state-level ROW prizes as well.
4 Grand Prizes are awarded in Poetry, and 4 Grand Prizes are awarded in Art and Poetry. The prizes are split by category:
Category I - Primary (Kindergarten - Grade 2)
Category II: Elementary (Grade 3 - Grade 5)
Category III: Intermediate (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Category IV: Secondary (Grade 9 - Grade 12)ROW awards 1 International Grand Prize to one entry, either art or poetry, in any age category.
Regionally, we have the Shasta Bioregion Award Winner(s), celebrating outstanding entries from Northern California. We also have several prizes aimed at celebrating specific subjects or forms:
- The Monkey's Raincoat Prize, honoring an exemplar haiku poem(s)
- the On Writing award category, which celebrates poems that approach the nature of writing
- the One Square Block prize, celebrating poems that examine the interaction between the manmade and natural world
The number of entries awarded these 3 prizes are up to the discretion of the judges, but is typically 1-3 per prize category.
Finally, our finalists who are published alongside the winners vary each year, depending on the number and quality of submissions.
River of Words/Kalmanovitz School of Education Teacher of the Year: 1 winner. For information about the Teacher of the Year nomination process, which runs year-round, click here.
Yes; everyone who enters will receive a Watershed Explorer Certificate, suitable for framing. Winners' and finalists' art and poetry will be published in our annual River of Words anthology, as well as on our Web page.
Check out our River of Words Regional Coordinator Starter-Kit and environmental resources pages, also in the Educators section of our website! Our Watershed Explorer Curriculum & associated activities might be helpful as well.
River of Words produces and distributes curriculum materials, communit partnership resources, and children's art and poetry.
River of Words also conducts Educator's Workshops at various locations throughout the year. For upcoming workshops, visit the Educators section here on our website.
ROW is a project of the Center for Environmental Literacy at Saint Mary's College, a non-profit educational organization, incorporated in the State of California. We are supported by grants from foundations and donations from individuals, businesses, and government agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency. We are affiliated with The Library of Congress Center for the Book, the Library's literacy promotion division.