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River of Words 2025 opens on October 15th, 2024, and closes on January 31st, 2025! 

Address:

IMPORTANT: All artwork submissions must be mailed to:

Attn: River of Words
Filippi Academic Hall (FAH 200), 2nd Floor
1928 St. Mary's Rd., PMB #4350
Moraga, CA 94575-4350

Print out the form submission notification sent to the email you provided and attach the form to the piece of art before mailing to us. Artwork submitted without the emailed proof of entry form will not be accepted.

Statewide River of Words:

River of Words 2025 Rules and Guidelines

Please read the detailed instructions for the 2025 River of Words International Art and Poetry Contest. 

1. All submissions are due by January 31, 2025 at 11:59pm PST after which the submission portal will close and no late submissions will be accepted for any reason. 

2. If you are a resident in  or , U.S.A, please submit your pieces through the Georgia or Arizona River of Words statewide contest. Your submission will automatically be entered into the International River of Words Contest. See the  or the  for more information on the Statewide contests. 

3. The contest is open to Pre-K–12th grade students, ages 5–19. Students must be enrolled in school to be eligible. All entries must be submitted by a parent, guardian, educator, or facilitator unless the student is 18 years old or older.

4. Participants may submit up to 5 entries for poetry and 5 entries for art (total of up to 10 entries). If more than 5 entries are submitted, we will only accept the first 5 as is. If multiple files or pieces of artwork are being submitted, then this form must be filled out once per submission. 

5.  All poems must be original work. Poem documents/PDFs cannot include names, ages, or any other personal information.

6. Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length (written) or 3 minutes (signed). For ASL poetry, please include a brief written summary of the poem’s content.

7. Collaborative poems and artwork are accepted, but only one student (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded.

8. At this time, we are able to accept poems only in English and Spanish.

9. Art must be mailed to the River of Words physical address in order to be considered for the competition regardless of medium. Art will not be returned to the artist. If the art is a digital piece, please have it printed. Mailed-in art submissions need to include a printed Jotform confirmation when sent alongside the art piece(s). See address below. 

               Attn: River of Words
               Filippi Academic Hall (FAH 200), 2nd Floor
               1928 St. Mary's Rd., PMB #4350
               Moraga, CA 94575-4350

10. All artwork must be original work. Acceptable media are paint, pencil, markers, ink, crayon, chalk or pastel (fixed), photography, cloth, collage, and computer art.

11. Revisions will not be accepted. Please make sure your work is completed before submitting to the portal.

12. By submitting any work of any kind to River of Words, you are granting, on behalf of yourself and the student, to River of Words all rights in the work, including but not limited to the right to publish, reproduce, perform, distribute and to include the work in the River of Words annual anthology, on River of Words websites, or in any other publications deemed appropriate by River of Words. Works submitted to River of Words cannot be submitted for other publications or competitions.

13. Teacher and group submissions will only be accepted through the . We no longer accept submissions via Google or Dropbox. There is a new parent/guardian permission form. Old parental permission forms will not be accepted. Parental permission forms only need to be submitted when teachers are submitting on behalf of their students. 

14. Questions and concerns can be emailed to rowinfo@stmarys-ca.edu.

Art and Poetry Category Winners

Entries will be judged in the following categories:

Category I: K-Grade 2 (Primary) or ages 5-7
Category II: Grades 3-5 (Elementary) or ages 8-11
Category III: Grades 6-8 (Intermediary) or ages 11-14
Category IV: Grades 9-12 (Secondary) or ages 14-19

Grand Prize

One Grand Prize winner is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Poetry, and one Grand Prize winner is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Art. 

Runner-Up Prize

One Runner-Up is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Poetry, and one Runner-Up is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Art. 

Second Runner-Up Prize

One Second Runner-Up is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Poetry, and one Second Runner-Up is selected in each of the four age/grade categories in Art. 

Art and Poetry Category Finalists

Approximately 50 finalists in art and 50 finalists in poetry for each age/grade category are selected to be published alongside the Winners. This amount can vary each year depending on the number and quality of submissions. 

Specialty Prizes

Specialty prizes are not judged based on age/grade category but on the specific criteria for each prize. 

Note: The number of entries awarded Specialty Prizes are up to the discretion of the judges, but are typically awarded to one entry per year.

International Prize

Awarded to international entries, either art or poetry, in any age category.

Shasta Bioregion Prize 

Awarded to one entry, either art or poetry, honoring a Northern California watershed.

One Square Block Prize

Awarded to art or poetry that examines city-scapes and the interaction between the manmade and the natural world. See 2018 River of Words finalists "Stoop Gardens in the City" by Ariella Brodie-Weisberg or "Down by the Batture" by Aiden Wiese for inspiration.

Monkey's Raincoat Prize

Awarded to short poems in the tradition of the Japanese haiku. This award celebrates River of Words' founder Robert Haas, who has enjoyed a lifelong study and fascination of the form. 

"On Writing" Poetry Finalists

This category of poems features narratives that reflect on the writing process and the speaker's connection to writing. See 2018 "On Writing" River of Words finalist "The Ant" by Grace Gorman or 2016-2017 "On Writing" River of Words finalist "Nature" by Lesley Mendoza-Gomez. 

River of Words/Kalmanovitz School of Education Teacher of the Year

Awarded to one outstanding educator who utilizes River of Words practices in the classroom and actively empowers their students to engage with their watershed.  For information about the Teacher of the Year nomination process, click here.

RIVER OF WORDS FAQ

WHAT DO ROW JUDGES LOOK FOR IN ART AND POETRY?

ROW 2024 WINNERS & FINALISTS

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Have questions? Email us at rowinfo@stmarys-ca.edu!