Every year, River of Words® (ROW) conducts an international environmental poetry and art competition for youth aged 5 to 19 in grades K-12, in affiliation with The Library of Congress Center for the Book. This free contest is designed to help youth explore the natural environment and cultural history of the place they live, and to express what they discover through poetry and art. Iowa entries not chosen as finalists or grand prize winners in the international contest are returned to IOWATER, where they are judged in a statewide River of Words IOWA Environmental Poetry and Art competition.
The IOWATER Volunteer Water Monitoring Program of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources coordinates the River of Words IOWA Environmental Poetry and Art competition. Over 530 students from Iowa entered the 2009 contest, either through their schools, community art centers, local libraries or on their own. Because of the large number of quality Iowa entries, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art generously offered to host a juried River of Words IOWA Environmental Poetry and Art Exhibit for the second year in a row. Thirty-seven works of poetry and art were selected to be included in this exhibit, held August 1-23, 2009. Following its run in Cedar Rapids, both the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque and the State Capitol Building in Des Moines signed on to host this traveling exhibit, which has been selected to be part of the Lt. Governor’s IOWA ARTIST SHOWCASE.
If your students would be interested in entering the contest for 2010, entries must be sent to the following by December 1:
River of Words, PO Box 4000-J
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
Phone: 510-548-POEM (7636)
Fax: 510-548-2095
ROW returns Iowa's entries to IOWATER in April for state competition and Iowa’s state winners are chosen in May.
For more information and entry forms, visit www.iowater.net and click on River of Words, or contact:
Pat Lohmann
IOWA River of Words Coordinator Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources
109 Trowbridge Hall
Iowa City, IA 52242-1319
Phone: (319) 335-1593
FAX: (319) 335-2754
email: Pat.Lohmann@dnr.iowa.gov
Again, the deadline for entries for the 2010 academic year is Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Entries received after December 1 are entered into next year's contest.
