Online submissions for the annual Wake County Public Libraries Teen Poetry Contest will be accepted from Feb. 1 through March 15 on Wake County’s website at www.wakegov.com/libraries. Area students from Grades 6-12 are invited to submit up to three original poems for the contest. Winners will have poems published in an online chapbook and will be invited to read during April for National Poetry Month in area libraries. Special prizes will also be awarded to the winners in each grade category.

In 2011, more than 500 poems were entered, representing more than 60 Wake County Public Schools, area private and charter schools and homeschoolers. The contest has grown exponentially since its inception in 2005 at the Cameron Village Regional Library.

Entries must be original works and teachers may assign the project for extra credit within their respective classrooms. Theme and topics may be determined by the poets, but a special winning category will be considered for poems inspired by The Fantastic Sky Race banner project on the Wake County Parking Garage (see theballoonboys.com). This special category will be judged by the artists from the banner project, Justin Philips, Joe Dawson and Jordan Deva.

Other judges include teen author Melissa Walker and ECU Professor of English, Erica Galluppi.