Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Creative Communication? Creative Communication is a company who is devoted to the promotion of writing, teaching and appreciation of student writing. The intent of the student writing contest is to motivate creative writers. The top entries are published in an anthology that will record the creative insights of today's young writers. There is no requirement for a student to purchase an anthology, however, if a student wishes to purchase one, it is made available at an affordable price. Winners of the contest and the top 10% of the schools that enter receive a free copy of the anthology. In addition, any teacher with 5 or more students accepted to be published will receive a free anthology that features their young writers.
Why do we sponsor a student writing contest? This can best be answered by a letter that we recently received.
"In this world of video games, virtual reality, and other technological hooplah, it is nice to have a group such as you who still value the written word! So many high school students love to write poetry and I think it is wonderful to provide a vehicle through which to showcase their work."
Anne Byrd, Teacher
Clover High School
Clover, South Carolina
Why do you request a student's home address? Each year as we try to contact the finalists and winners in our contests we find that often schools do not forward or deliver mail to students. This creates several problems. In the past we have found that when we originally contact the student, several schools have simply thought that mail directed to students is junk mail and have thrown them away. Other schools have a policy to not deliver mail to students. Once the final judging is completed, each year, we must select over 100 new winners when the winning congratulations letter is not given to the student by the school. With a home address, we can be in direct contact with the poet. We do not sell our mailing list. Home or school addresses will not be given or shared with any other company, individual or agency for any purpose. Home address information will only be used by Creative Communication to contact the winners of the contest and to inform other high merit entries about the results of the contest and the ensuing publication.
Can home school students enter?
Yes. As long as a student is in grades K-12 in the United States or Canada, it doesn't matter where they go to school.
How does the contest work? Once we receive the entries from the students, the poems and essays are sent on to our judges. They go through the entries and less than 50% are accepted to be published. The judges then go through the entries that were accepted and pick out the top 10 poems and essays in each of the contest divisions of grades K-3; 4-6; 7-9; 10-12. The students that are accepted to be published are notified and sent a copy of their entry on a typesetter's proofsheet so that they can make sure that everything is exactly as they want it before it goes to press. Once we receive this proofsheet back from the student with any changes and their signature verifying it is their original work giving us permission to publish their entry, we make sure that their entry is included in the anthology.
When can I expect to receive the book that I ordered? In the letter that we send to the students, we state that it takes 20-24 weeks (about 6 months) before the books are shipped. For the Spring contest the books are shipped in September and October. The Fall contest books are shipped in April and May. We appreciate your patience. The process of creating a quality hard bound book takes a long time. We must first wait for the students to return their typesetter's proofsheets giving us permission to publish them, then we complete the page layout for the books and ship it off to be printed and bound.
If I entered the Fall contest, can I enter the Spring one also? Yes, you can enter both the Fall and the Spring contests, but only one entry is allowed per student for each one.
My school is not entering the contest, can I enter alone? Yes, you can still enter the contest. Please include your school information including school name, address, and teacher’s name. This helps us to be able to contact you and helps your teacher to possibly receive a free copy of the anthology.
What does it mean if I don't find my name on the winner's list? The list of winners has the names of the Top Ten winners in each contest division. Being invited to be published means that your entry was in the top 45% of the entries for your area. It does not necessarily mean that you were a Top Ten Winner. The Top Ten Winners are chosen from the students who were selected to be published. The contest becomes very selective when it comes down to the Top Ten. A Top Ten winner will receive a free copy of the book and a savings bond. Students who were not winners, but were invited to be published, are included in the book when we receive their typesetter's proofsheet giving us permission to publish their entry.
Is this a contest where everyone is accepted to be published? Absolutely not! We take pride in the fact that we are selective with our entries. We reject more entries than we accept to be published. Our objective it to make it an honor to be selected to the anthology.
Why do you have several deadlines ? In the past, most of our contests had a deadline in December. To accommodate teachers who complete their poetry or essay writing unit in the fall we have the Fall deadline and for teachers who complete their poetry or essay writing unit in the spring we have the Spring deadline. We were then contacted by schools who were in session over the summer. The end result is that we have three deadlines. One deadline is for the Fall, Spring and Summer. Entries that are received after a contest is over will automatically be entered into the next deadline. Of course teachers may have students enter any contest, but only one entry is allowed per student for each contest.
Why do you have a contest for both poetry and essays? For 10 years we just had a contest for poetry. During that time we had numerous letters from teachers who requested an essay contest. In reflecting upon that request we realized that not every teacher teaches poetry. Having an essay contest allows more teachers and students to be involved and hopefully with more prizes, we will motivate more young writers.
Who owns the rights to the student's entry? The student owns the rights to the entry. If an entry is selected to be published, we ask for one time permission to publish the entry and give all rights to the student.
Does the contest require a certain topic for the poem or a certain style of
poem?
Most topics can be used for your poem and the poem can be written in most any style. Often a poem will stand out by being about a unique topic, but the most important criteria is how well the poem is written. Topics that have graphic violence, sexual situations or are pro a negative moral or situation such as suicide or drugs are not accepted to be published. Whereas most any style can be accepted we do not accept concrete poems that have words written upside down or backwards. We also do not publish "found" poems that take the words of other published authors and are used to make a poem.
Who are the judges? The judges are published writers and educators in elementary, secondary and higher education, who have a background in literature.
What criteria do your judges use? First of all, does the poem or essay meet the rules. We reject numerous poems that are over 21 lines, and essays that are over 300 words. We also receive numerous entries that we have to reject because there is not a name or address included. Second, we have to be able to read the entry. Often a group of entries will have been xeroxed and are unreadable or the entry is not written legibly. Third we look for literary merit, creativity and social significance. The entry should have the correct usage of words or grammar (however, we do give freedom to be poetic).
What kind of poems and essays are winners? What is most important is that the poem and essay are well written and stand out as being excellent. What makes a poem or essay stand out is the use of language to create strong images, a topic that shows an unique awareness to an important issue, or a creative approach that shows originality.
How will the prizes be awarded? The prizes will be awarded in the form of savings bonds. For each grade level (K-3; 4-6; 7-9; 10-12) the top ten entries in both the poetry and essay contest will be given a $50 savings bond and a free copy of the anthology. The prizes will be mailed to the winners upon completion of the contest.
Will the entries be returned? Because of the thousands of entries that are sent to our contest, no entries will be returned. For both the contest and the anthology that is published, the student will retain all rights to the entries submitted.
What does the book look like? This book is professionally bound in an 8.5 x 11 format.
* Entries are published with student's name and grade.
* Each poet's name is indexed
* Each book is hard bound with a richly textured cover
What is your privacy policy?
Privacy policy:
We believe in privacy and in protecting the privacy rights of our students, teachers and schools. Creative Communication will not share any information about our students, teachers or schools with any other company, individual or agency without the express permission of the student, teacher or school involved. Home or school addresses will not be given or shared with any other company, individual or agency for any purpose. Home address information will only be used by Creative Communication to contact the winners of the contest and to inform other high merit entries about the results of the contest and the ensuing publication. The names of the writing contest winners will be posted on our website and given to local media after we have permission from the students to release their names. Please contact Creative Communication if you have further questions on our privacy policy.
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