Do You Want To Be Bucks County's Next Poet Laureate?

The search is on for the 40th Annual Bucks County Poet Laureate, according to Bucks County Community College professors Christopher Bursk and Ethel Rackin. The duo are directors of the longest-running poet laureate program in Pennsylvania.

If you're interested in entering your name for consideration, here are the rules:

• You must be a Bucks County resident over 18 who has never previously served as poet laureate.
• You must submit 10 original poems along with an entry form to the college’s Language and Literature Department.
• Poetry of any style, form, or length is permitted.
• All work must be original, published or unpublished, typewritten or word-processed on one side only in black ink.
• All entries must be accompanied by an entry form, which can be obtained online by clicking here. It is also available at libraries and bookstores throughout the county, or by contacting the college’s Language and Literature Department at 215-968-8151.
• Entries must be postmarked by Wednesday, Sept. 7 and received in the office by Friday, Sept. 9 at 4 p.m.
• Mail to: Poet Laureate Contest, Language and Literature Dept., Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, Pa., 18940.
• There is no charge to enter.

The winner of the competition will receive a $500 honorarium, a proclamation from the Bucks County Commissioners, and a reading at Bucks County Community College with 2015 Poet Laureate Tyler Kline and contest runners-up.

The final judge will be J. C. Todd, author of the poetry collection What Space This Body and the chapbooks Entering Pisces and Nightshade. She teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Rosemont College and is a lecturer at Bryn Mawr College.

Preliminary judge will be Amy Small-McKinney, the 2011 Montgomery County Poet Laureate and author of Life is Perfect, Body of Surrender, and Clear Moon.

PHOTO: (Contributed) Bucks County Community College Professors Christopher Bursk (left) and Ethel Rackin (right), directors of the Bucks County Poet Laureate Program, have launched the search for the 2016 bard of the county.