2026 River of Words International Poetry & Art Contest

Please read the detailed instructions for the 2026 River of Words Contest below

Contest Rules:
1. All submissions are due by January 31, 2026 at 11:59pm PST after which the submission portal will close and no late submissions will be accepted for any reason. 

2. If you are a resident in Georgia or Arizona, U.S.A, please submit your pieces through the Georgia or Arizona River of Words statewide contest. Your submission will automatically be entered into the International River of Words Contest. See the Georgia ROW Website or the Arizona ROW Website for more information on the Statewide contests. 

3. The contest is open to Pre-K–12th grade students, ages 5–19. Students must be enrolled in school to be eligible. All entries must be submitted by a parent, guardian, educator, or facilitator unless the student is 18 years old or older.

4. Participants may submit up to 5 entries for poetry and 5 entries for art (total of up to 10 entries). If more than 5 entries are submitted, we will only accept the first 5 as is. For each entry, please fill out a separate Jotform. If multiple entries are submitted in the same form, only the first submission will be eligible for judging.   

5. All poems and artwork must be original work. AI-generated poems and artwork will not be eligible for judging.  

6. Please remove all personal information from the poetry document and its file name. This includes name, age, school, and address.

7. Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length (written) or 3 minutes (signed). For ASL poetry, please include a brief written summary of the poem’s content.

8. Collaborative poems and artwork are accepted, but only one student (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded.

9. At this time, we are able to accept poems only in English and Spanish.

10. Art must be mailed to the River of Words physical address in order to be considered for the competition regardless of medium. Art will not be returned to the artist. If the art is a digital piece, please have it printed. Mailed-in art submissions need to include a printed Jotform confirmation when sent alongside the art piece(s). See address below. 

11. All artwork must be original work. Acceptable media are paint, pencil, markers, ink, crayon, chalk or pastel (fixed), photography, cloth, collage, and computer art.

12. Revisions will not be accepted. Please make sure your work is completed before submitting to the portal.

13. By submitting any work of any kind to River of Words, you are granting, on behalf of yourself and the student, to River of Words all rights in the work, including but not limited to the right to publish, reproduce, perform, distribute and to include the work in the River of Words annual anthology, on River of Words websites, or in any other publications deemed appropriate by River of Words. Works submitted to River of Words cannot be submitted for other publications or competitions.

14. Teacher and group submissions will only be accepted through the Jotform portal. We no longer accept submissions via Google or Dropbox. There is a new parent/guardian permission form. Old parental permission forms will not be accepted. Parental permission forms only need to be submitted when teachers are submitting on behalf of their students. 

(English) 2026 ROW Parent_Guardian Permission Form

(Español) 2026 ROW Parent/Guardian Permission Form

15. The email address provided on the Jotform submission will be automatically added to the River of Words mailing list, which is used to share important contest updates. You may unsubscribe at any time. 

16. Questions and concerns can be emailed to rowinfo@stmarys-ca.edu.

Rules and Guildelines

Please review the full River of Words Rules and Guildelines here. 

Privacy Notice

Please review the River of Words Privacy Notice here.

Legal Terms and Conditions

Note: This section is EQUIVALENT to submitting the Parent/Guardian Permission form, which is only required for Teacher/Facilitator submissions. You do not need to submit an additional Permission Form after acknowledging these Terms and Conditions.

Consent to Publish Art / Poetry

I hereby certify and covenant that I am the legal guardian or parent of the student named above (“Student”). As the legal guardian or parent of the Student, I hereby grant and assign to River of Words® (“ROW”) the non-exclusive right and world-wide royalty free and perpetual license, in respect to the original artwork, writing, poem(s), photos or video submitted on behalf of the student, to ROW, to perform, publish, display, distribute, or use the same, individually or in conjunction with other original artwork, writing, poem(s), photos, and video, in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the world, for any purpose whatsoever, and to sublicense to third parties these same rights, whether for a fee or otherwise. I represent and warrant that the works being submitted are the original works of the Student and such works do not infringe upon the rights of any third party.

Consent to Use Student’s Information

I consent to the use of the Student’s name, likeness in picture, video, or audio recording, and geographic location (city and state/country) to identify the author of the work in connection with the Student’s participation in the ROW contest. I understand that any use of submitted work may include the Student’s name as its creator and the city and state/country where the Student resides, and may also include an identifiable likeness of the Student in picture, video, or sound recording; and I hereby give consent for the publication and use of this personal information, and consent to such use without compensation of any kind for the Student or myself, other than the privilege of Student’s participation in the ROW contest.

I understand that I may withdraw consent for the specific identification of the Student at any time in the future, but withdrawn consent will have no effect on past use or publication of Student’s name, likeness, and location, or the inclusion of Student’s name, likeness, and location in any publication that is currently undergoing the printing process. Withdrawal of consent for the use of the Student’s name, likeness, image or identity does not have any impact on River of Words rights in the use of the individual works submitted on behalf of the Student. Consent for the use of the Student’s name and likeness can be withdrawn by contacting ROW directly at rowinfo@stmarys-ca.edu.

Agreement to Release Rights

I hereby release and discharge ROW from any and all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of Student’s name, likeness, location, the original artwork, writing, poem(s), photos, and video, including without limitations any and all claims for libel or invasion of privacy. This release shall be binding upon the Student, myself, and our heirs, legal representatives, and assigns. I further release ROW from any responsibility for any injury incurred during the research or production of the original artwork, writing, poem(s), photos and video. This authorization and release shall also inure to the benefit of the successors, legal representatives, licensees, and assigns of ROW.

In any of the winning categories, ROW maintains the exclusive right to declare no winner and withhold prizes if no poem or artwork of merit is found. ROW assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged poetry or artwork, and will not return submitted work. ROW may sell, assign, license, or otherwise transfer all rights granted to it hereunder.

Agreement and Verification

With respect to the above written consent for the use of the submitted works, the consent to the use of the Student’s personal information, and the agreement to hold harmless, I agree that I have read the foregoing and fully understand the contents thereof and on my own behalf, on behalf of the Student and the Student’s heirs and successors, and I agree to the terms stated therein.

CAUTION: YOUR ENTRY IS NOT SUBMITTED UNTIL YOU HIT REVIEW ANSWERS AND THEN SUBMIT. It can take up to 5 minutes for you to receive a confirmation email to your inbox. 

NOTE: By submitting this form, you will automatically be added to the River of Words email subscription. These communications will only include necessary information about the contest such as results and reminders.

REVIEW YOUR ANSWERS BEFORE SUBMITTING. If your form is submitted incorrectly, your piece will be disqualified from the contest. 

*If you cannot review your answers try re-doing the Captcha Test. All your entered fields will be saved.

 

IMPORTANT FOR ART ONLY: All artwork submissions must be mailed to:

Attn: River of Words
Filippi Academic Hall (FAH 200), 2nd Floor
1928 St. Mary's Rd., PMB #4350
Moraga, CA 94575-4350

Print out the email confirmation of this completed form and attach to the artwork before mailing it to us. Artwork submitted without the proof of entry form will not be accepted.