About

Entrants may send up to five poems or prose pieces, or up to eight photos or artworks, with a cover letter and a parent’s email confirming the work is original. Prose is capped at 1,000 words and poems at 30 lines, and AI-generated work is not accepted. Ten winning spots are announced each year, often shared as joint winners; in 2024 there were 20. Winners receive an honor certificate, several back issues, and five books, and their work appears on the website in the autumn. Every entrant receives a digital copy of the awards issue.

Recognition here is broad: the age range runs from 7 to 18, winners are frequently joint, and the organizer calls its selection highly subjective, so the award is a modest credential best suited to younger students. It carries more weight for its theme than for its competition: the magazine has published since 1988 and rewards multicultural and ecological work. The organizer publishes no entry totals, so selectivity cannot be stated.

A win shows a student’s work was chosen for publication by a long-running multicultural magazine.