Poetry Contest
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The Donate Life Northwest Poetry Contest is designed to showcase your perspective on donation and transplantation, and to better understand what it means to you and your community. Whether it is a tribute to a donor family member who has passed, or a reflection of your joy at receiving a life-saving organ or tissue transplant, we hope that beautiful works of poetry can help capture part of the experience.
We encourage creativity! Feel free to submit poetry of all types-- lyrics, prose, poems, acrostic poems, haikus, sonnets, experimental, etc. However you wish to best express your feelings and experiences with organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation, we are excited to read.
The poetry contest will launch in March 2025 and run through our Summer Block Party. At that event, the winner will be announced, along with people's choice voting. The winning poem will be featured in a DLNW digital campaign and will receive a $200 gift card. The people's choice winner will receive a $100 gift card.
Rules & Guidelines for Entry
- Be creative!
- Poems must be the entrant's original work. AI-generated work is prohibited.
- Poems must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title).
- No more than 3 submissions per person allowed.
Submission Process
- Poems may be submitted electronically through our online form, below.
- If you prefer to mail your poem in, you can send it to: Donate Life NW, PO Box 532, Portland, OR 97207
- Mailed in submissions must have a submission form included
- All submissions must be submitted electronically or postmarked no later than Sunday, May 18, 2025.
Poetry Writing Resources
Need some help? Not sure where to start? Check out these selected resources to learn more about poetry and how to write your own poem.
- How to Write a Poem: A Step-by-Step Guide, from Grammarly.com
- Poetry 101: Learn About Poetry, Different Types of Poems, and Poetic Devices with Examples, from MasterClass.com
- The Beginners Guide to Poetry, from Matrix Education
- How to Write A Poem, Step-By-Step, from Writers.com
- Video: How to Write a Poem, from ReedsyBlog
- Video: Everything you need to write a poem (and how it can save a life), from TEDxTalks
Judging
Entries will be judged on creativity, impact, and originality by Donate Life Northwest. Selected poems will be open to public vote both through online voting as well as voting in-person at our Summer Block Party. The winning poem, as selected by Donate Life Northwest, will be featured in a DLNW digital campaign, and will receive a $200 gift card. The people's choice winner, as voted on by DLNW community members, will receive a $100 gift card.
Donate Life Northwest reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not comply with these guidelines or is deemed inappropriate.
For more information, or with any questions, contact us at 503-494-7888 or info@donatelifenw.org.