Earth Day Poetry & Photo Contests

Earth Day 2023 Poetry & Photo Contest deadlines are March 31, 2023

We would love to see your poetry, flash fiction, video, or photos around our “FLOW” theme to celebrate Earth Day! See entry details below.

About the Theme…

The Maple Ridge Earth Day 2023 theme, FLOW, looks at the many flows of life that swirl around us, and encourages people to become more conscious about how they interact and react to these continually changing landscapes.

“Whether we admit it or not, embrace it or not, change is the only constant in life,” says event coordinator Leanne Koehn with Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, “There are so many different flows all around us. Throughout our lives, we are constantly navigating these flows, moving from one place to another, needing different things at different times.”

Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed and need to step OUT of the flow for a bit, take a break, clear your head. Maybe you have been looking in from the outside for too long and need the courage and encouragement to step IN – to connect with people, get involved in the community, volunteer. Maybe you are dancing with the flow, enjoying where it takes you or working to divert it to a better place. MAYBE you need to share your creativity with your community through the Earth Day Poetry & Photo contests 🙂

 

Celebrate Earth Day 2023 Poetry & MORE Contest

We want to see your best “Flow” themed poem, flash fiction or video to celebrate Earth Day in Maple Ridge 2023. This is the third year we’ve expanded our poetry contest to include flash fiction and video (it has been a great addition!), so get creative and show us your stuff!

3 winners in each category (poetry, flash fiction and video compete against each other in each category):

  • Kids (up to age 10) – 1st, 2nd and 3rd
  • Youth (age 11 to 16) – 1st, 2nd and 3rd
  • Adult (17 and up) – 1st, 2nd and 3rd

Winners will be announced by April 16, 2023 and may be asked to have their work published or read at the Celebrate Earth Day Welcoming Ceremonies on Saturday, April 22, 2023.

Submit your poem, flash fiction or video via email by midnight, Friday, March 31, 2023 to: EarthDayCreative2021@gmail.com (no, we didn’t update the email address from 2021!)

Contest criteria:

  • Relevance to “Flow” theme (25%)
  • Judge’s impression (25%)
  • Format structure (20%) (poetic structure/flash fiction structure/video structure)
  • Spelling, grammar, clarity, technical capability (15%)
  • Originality (15%)

Rules & Regulations

  1. The contest is open to all British Columbia residents.
  1. Limit of up to 2 entries per person. Must be previously unpublished work.
  2. All styles of poetry will be accepted to a 350-word limit. Flash fiction is a 500-word limit. Video is a 1-minute limit.
  3. Entries must be sent as a PDF, DOC or DOCX attachment for poetry or flash fiction. Video must be sent as a link to YouTube or a public Facebook video post. Email entries must also include name, age, BC mailing address, phone number and email address.
  4. Winners will be selected by publishing and writing professional(s).
  5. Rights: By entering the contest you are giving Celebrate Earth Day Maple Ridge first Canadian rights for publication, AND the option to collect all the years’ poems, flash fiction pieces and videos into a multi-year compilation at some point. You are free to market your work(s) in other places, but you should inform them if it has won or appeared on the Celebrate Earth Day in Maple Ridge website or been published as part of Earth Day materials.

PHOTO Contest: 3 categories – Child (up to age 10), Youth (11-16), & Adult (17+), PLUS Grand Prize Winner. Send entries in jpg format (minimum 1MB) with name & age (if under 17) to r.davies@shaw.ca by midnight on FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023

Entries will be posted on the Celebrate Earth Day Facebook page and voting will be open to the public until Saturday, April 15. Visit & vote for your favourite photos! Winners will be announced at the Earth Day Welcoming Ceremonies on Saturday, April 22.