Found Poetry Challenge

Location

Instructional workshops at the Witherle Library. Learn how to create a 'found poem' and understand the rules.

Youth workshop on July 5, from 12:30 to 2:00pm

Adult workshop on July 9 from 9:00 to 10:30am

The Castine Arts Association in partnership with the Wilson Museum and Witherle Memorial, Library is sponsoring a Found Poetry Challenge for all reading and writing ages beginning July 1 with a submission deadline of Friday, August 19.

So what constitutes a "found poem"? Found Poetry its poetry created by using words found from printed sources already in existence. Roadside signs could be the inspiration for a found poem or fortune cookie sayings. A found poem might emerge from advertisements promoting a variety of goods or words found in personal ads. Words on a map or travel brochure could be the source of a poem. The possibilities are endless.

In the case of this particular challenge, poems must be created from words that appear in one to two articles that have been published in any Maine magazines or newspapers. The age of the article doesn't matter, as long as the focus remains on Maine published periodicals. Furthermore, the content of the article(s) does not have to dictate the content of the poem. The found words may inspire an entirely different tone and subject matter in the found poem than exists in the original articles. A question often asked about found poems is whether or not a writer may include some of his or her own words. In the case of this challenge and the ones posed annually by the New York Times, each poet may use a maximum of TWO words that do not appear in the chosen articles.

To support and inform writers of the found poetry process, two workshops will be held at Witherle Memorial Library: A youth program on Tuesday, July 5, from12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and an adult program on Saturday, July 9, from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. In addition, rules for the challenge may be picked up at the Witherle Library front desk or found online at www.castinearts.org .

The culminating activity will take place at a public reading of the submitted found poetry on August 24th at 7:00 p.m. at the Wilson Museum Education Center, Perkins St. Castine.

Contact Information

Johanna Sweet. email johanna.s.sweet@gmail.com; 326-4924

Rules and Guidelines are posted below as an attachment:

Downloadable Documents (PDFs)

Rules for Found Poetry Challenge