May 16, 2026
10am – 6pm
Bohrer Park
The 12 OUTSTANDING finalists for this year’s high school poetry contest have been selected! The top 3 Winners will be selected by our celebrity judge.
You get to vote for Fan Favorite by clicking the “like” button at the end of each poem that you like. (Fan favorite voting will close on Friday, May 8, at 11 p.m. ET.)
All of the winners will be announced at the Book Festival on May 16th. Join us!!
The volunteer shirts are orange, overlaid with blue text— complementary colors— but your underarms are soaked with sweat and it’s an ugly design, anyway. Lord, I can’t watch movies anymore because I always guess the ending. You could graph a… Continue Reading
The flame leaps across the quiet room Bright and alive, the light dances on the wall The sparks sounding of laughter The magnetic orange hue that always glows But do not forget about the wax The shape slumping It surrender… Continue Reading
Swimming, observing colorful coral and vibrant fish from above. The hustle and bustle below, a kaleidoscope of colors. Mesmerized, blissfully unaware of the synthetic plume creeping towards me. Shifting my gaze, swaying plants morph into fishing nets, lively animals change… Continue Reading
We carry our breaks instead of pretending we were never dropped Humanity always lives in contradiction; our impulses are different from our intuition. We are split creatures. Making medicine with the same hands we make weapons; the hand that knows… Continue Reading
A kindergartener on her first day of school clutches her backpack straps like a rule. An old man grips his cane the same way, both afraid no one will ask them to stay. Both terrified of the passing tide, Both… Continue Reading
My sister’s dog barks furiously up into our old oak tree, at the birds that taunt him from the leaves, and he wishes that he could fly. Miles above us, businessmen recline in the sleek metal dragon that they have… Continue Reading
Golden Shovel after James Baldwin's letter to Cynthia Packard, July 4, 1987 “The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” – Genesis 3:20 I. Fall Eve heralds the year of the cherubim. Everything… Continue Reading
Kindness is not loud. It does not announce itself like thunder. It is a tiny seed, almost invisible, easy to miss if you are not looking closely. It waits in the cracks of sidewalks, in the pause before a harsh… Continue Reading
Humanity: a flickering light at the end of the tunnel a lighthouse in the middle of a stormy sea, quiet hands that bandage a scraped knee, and an umbrella shared on a rainy street warm soup passed across a crowded… Continue Reading
A woman saw a businessman strutting through the street A man saw a teacher trudging through the street A child saw an artist strolling through the street But all a man was doing was walking through the street An ant… Continue Reading
Humanity is a fragile thread, woven through hope and fear, a song we hum beneath our breath to prove that we are here. It’s the hand that lifts another up, the tear we do not hide, the spark that glows… Continue Reading
Do you try to ignore and hide Spending thousands on each desire Clinging to your pride While the world goes up in fire? Do you really feel pleased Tossing out a dinner plate still full Turning your back on them… Continue Reading
High school students from across the Washington Metropolitan Area were invited to submit short poems to the Gaithersburg Book Festival High School Poetry Contest.
This year, the prompt was “What is humanity?”