10 Poetry Scholarships For Students: Win Money To Write & Recite

For students with a passion for poetry, scholarships offer an incredible opportunity to pursue their creative dreams while earning free money* for college. Many organizations and institutions offer generous scholarships that celebrate the power of self-expression through poetry. If you love penning your thoughts down in the form of poems, your passion can open the door to valuable scholarship opportunities.A person reading a red book.

To help you get started, we’ve put together 10 poetry scholarships with details about eligibility, application requirements, and funding organizations. Explore these opportunities and apply to all that apply to you. Every award you win can help you get one step closer to achieving your educational and artistic goals.

 

10 Scholarships for Poetry Lovers

1. Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships

  • Scholarship Amount: $27,000
  • Deadline: April (exact date varies annually)

The Poetry Foundation awards 5 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships every year to support talented young poets between 21 and 31 years of age. Applicants must demonstrate exceptional promise in poetry to win the $27,000 award, which is among the larger poetry scholarships in the US. No academic enrollment is required but you must be able to demonstrate a clear commitment to poetry to be considered.

To apply for this scholarship, you must first registry and apply through the Poetry Foundation’s Grants and Awards Online Portal. After your registration is approved, which can take about 3-5 business days, you will need to upload a single pdf that includes a brief personal statement and 10 pages of poetry. The lucky winners receive the financial award and also a potential publication in Poetry magazine.

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2. Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry

  • Scholarship Amount: $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second place
  • Deadline: April 15 annually

Named after the famous Chilean surrealist who passed away in 1973, the Neruda Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Nimrod, a literary journal published by the University of Tulsa.  The award is intended to help emerging poets fund their college tuition.

The contest begins on January 1, 2025 and the postmark deadline is January 31, 2025. Applicants must submit three to ten pages of poetry, which can take the form of several short poems or one long poem. Entries may be submitted online or via post. Two winners receive poetry scholarships and a publication in the journal. The first-place winner receives $2,000, with the runner-up receiving $1,000. This is one of the very few scholarships that requires a $25 entry fee.

3. Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest

  • Scholarship Amount: $1,000 – $20,000
  • Deadline: Varies by state

Administered by The Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud is a national contest open to high school students interested in poetry recitation. To be eligible for this contest, you must be currently enrolled in grades 9 – 12 in a school registered with your state Poetry Out Loud coordinator.

This is a progressive contest in which you must participate in a lower-level competition before advancing to the state finals. Participants memorize and perform classic poems from the contest’s anthology. Prizes are awarded at state and national levels. The state-level winner wins a $200 prize and the state-level runner-up wins a $100 prize. There are four prizes ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 at the national level.

4. Just Poetry!!!

  • Scholarship Amount: $100- $500
  • Deadline: Quarterly – 4 deadlines annually

Just Poetry!!! is a national anthology for high school poets and high school teachers. Every 90 days, the magazine accepts submissions from any U.S. high schooler and publishes winners. There are multiple scholarship awards, including a $500 award for students chosen as Poet of the Year, a $500 award for the best poem per publication (four winners a year), as well as a $100 editor’s choice award per publication (also four winners a year).

You must be a high school student to be eligible for the scholarship. Your application must include a single original poem of 20 or fewer lines. Every student may only submit one 20-line poem per quarterly cycle. Poetry submissions are judged based on originality, creativity, mastery of poetic expression, artistic quality and imagery. The judges are volunteers who are poets and educational professionals.

There are 4 deadlines in a year:

  • Fall issue – September 30
  • Winter issue – December 31
  • Spring issue – March 31
  • Summer issue – June 30

5. Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship

  • Scholarship Amount: $74,000
  • Deadline: October 15

The Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship is a fantastic opportunity for you if you love poetry AND traveling equally. If you’re a gifted poet willing to spend a year traveling internationally, you could get approximately $66,500 to advance your poetry practice. This scholarship was established by the American poet Amy Lowell who wished to support travel abroad for talented American-born poets. There are no age or academic restrictions for this scholarship.

To apply for this opportunity, you must submit the completed application form available on the website before October 15. The poetry sample, which must be submitted along with the application, must consist of either a printed volume of your poetry or up to 40 typed pages of poetry. The scholarship award for 2025- 2026 is approximately $74,000 adjusted for inflation. The funds are paid in quarterly installments, with the first installment paid before departure.

If two winners are chosen, each will receive the full amount to travel abroad for one year.

6. Scholastic Portfolio Awards

  • Scholarship Amount: $2,000 – $12,500
  • Deadline: December – January (varies by region)

The Scholastic Portfolio Awards are a prestigious scholarship opportunity for graduating high school seniors who excel in visual arts or writing. These awards are part of the broader Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which celebrate exceptional creative talent among young artists and writers in the United States.

To be considered, you must submit a cohesive portfolio consisting of six works in your chosen category – poetry, fiction, or nonfiction for writers. Portfolios are judged based on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Along with their creative works, applicants must provide a written artist or writer’s statement reflecting on their process using prompt questions provided on the website.

Gold Medal Portfolio winners are awarded $12,500 each and Silver Medal Portfolio winners receive $2,000. In addition to monetary awards, winners gain national recognition, along with opportunities to showcase their work in exhibitions and publications, providing a significant platform for their creative achievements.

7. The Narrative Prize

  • Scholarship Amount: $5,000
  • Deadline: June 15 annually

Funded by Narrative Magazine, the Narrative Prize recognizes new and emerging writers and poets for their unpublished or newly published. It is open to all writers worldwide, including students, who are at the beginning of their literary careers.

To be eligible, applicants must have their work published in Narrative Magazine within the award year. The submission deadline for each year’s award is June 15. Applications received after June 15 are considered for the following year’s prize. Winners are judged based on creativity, quality of writing, and storytelling ability. If more than one work merits the award in any particular year, the prize money is divided among the winners.

8. 1800wheelchair.com Scholarship

  • Scholarship Amount: $500
  • Deadline: May annually

The 1800wheelchair.com Scholarship is a unique opportunity that focuses on ‘visual poetry’. The visual poem must be related to the triumphs and challenges of wheelchair mobility. Open to students of all academic levels currently enrolled in an accredited high school, college or university in the United States, this scholarship encourages students to showcase their creativity and win $500 in scholarship funds

Applicants are required to submit a poem that incorporates a visual element, such as an infographic, artistic illustration, or other creative media. The submission can be representational or abstract and must be thought-provoking and visually appealing. The scholarship page offers a list of prompts that can help you get started.

9. Dorothy Rosenberg Memorial Prize

  • Scholarship Amount: $ 1,000
  • Deadline: December

The Dorothy Rosenberg Memorial Prize is open to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, who demonstrate exceptional skill in crafting short, lyric poems. Established in honor of Dorothy Rosenberg, this competition. celebrates excellence in lyrical poetry, offering financial awards of up to $1,000 to talented poets. The prize is an excellent opportunity for student poets to gain recognition and financial support for their creative talents.

Applicants are required to submit an original lyric poem of 30 lines or fewer, showcasing their ability to convey powerful emotions and artistic depth in a concise format. Students may enter multiple competitive prize contests established by UC Berkeley but cannot submit the same manuscript or portions of it to more than one contest.

10. Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship

  • Scholarship Amount: $1,000
  • Deadline: December annually

The Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship is awarded every year to two American poets aged 30 and under who have yet to publish their first book of poems. The two winning manuscripts are selected for publication and introduced by two renowned poets who serve as fellowship judges, offering valuable mentorship and exposure. Winners also receive $1,000 and have their chapbook published.

Applicants must submit a manuscript of 20 to 30 pages of original poetry, reflecting their creative voice and literary skill. The poems must be typed and submissions must not include illustrations. The fellowships encourage early-career poets and help them establish a foothold in the literary world.

Apply to one or all of the poetry scholarships that you are eligible for. Remember, there’s no limit to the number of scholarships you apply to or the amount of money you can win. What’s more, all the money you win is yours to keep. You don’t have to return it or pay interest on it.

Expand your search further using College Raptor’s scholarship search database to find thousands of scholarships for college from various institutions, private, and government organizations.


*While a scholarship does not have to be repaid, there may be other obligations associated with the scholarship.

 
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4 thoughts on “10 Poetry Scholarships For Students: Win Money To Write & Recite”

  1. rodney hall says:

    can you please help me learn big words and more words

    1. Allison Wignall says:

      Hello, Rodney! Check out our post on Must Know Vocabulary Words for the ACT/SAT! There are numerous words (both big and small) featured with their definitions, as well as resources to expand your vocabulary. Hope this helps!

  2. Jasmine Migwi says:

    I’m 16 and have a strong passion for poetry, I plan on growing that and being able to get a scholarship on that. I have dreams and goals but unfortunately sometimes my mother struggles for money on being able to pay for my education. I suppose that a scholarship would be able to help me reach those goals.

  3. Angel brillante says:

    I love writing poetry and since then i want to earn money by making poems

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