Rules & Dates

SUBMIT RECITATIONS 

KEY DATES

Junior Individual Competition

  • February 1, 2024
    Online Contest open for submissions
  • March 7, 2024 @ 5pm PST
    Submission deadline
  • March 14, 2024
    Junior Online Contest results announced

Team Regional Competitions

  • Held in-person during month of March 2024

Online Senior Competition

  • February 1, 2024
    Online Qualifiers open for submissions
  • March 7, 2024 @ 5pm PST
    Online Qualifiers submission deadline
  • March 14, 2024
    24 Semifinalists announced and
    People’s Choice Awards voting starts
  • March 22, 2024
    9 Finalists announced
    People’s Choice Winners announced
  • April 21-25, 2024
    Senior National Finals in Ottawa

 

RULES

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

  • Students must be attending a school in Canada.
  • No student may be excluded from participation in this competition on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.
  • A Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poesie permission form must be signed and submitted in order for a student to compete in the Junior Online Finals or the Senior Online Qualifiers.

STUDENT ELIGIBILITY

  • A student can only compete in one prize stream in a given year. A student may compete in both a Team Regional and the Senior Contest.
  • A teacher supervises their students' participation in the Junior Online Finals or the Senior Online Qualifiers. 
  • Only one student at a school per prize stream may participate in our individual contests.
  • Homeschooled students who want to participate in the Junior Online Finals or in the Senior Online Qualifiers must first make arrangements to compete at a participating school contest in their area.
  • A National Champion (a student who places first in the English, French, or Bilingual stream) is not eligible to compete in the same prize stream in subsequent years.

Junior Competition

  • Students must be in grades 7–9. In Quebec, students must be in Secondary 1, 2 or 3.
  • A school can have one, two, or three students compete in the Junior Online Finals; that is, one student in each prize stream: English, Bilingual, and French.

Senior Competition

  • All competitors must be aged 18 or younger by September 30, 2023. Students must be in grades 10–12. In Quebec, students must be in Secondary 4 or 5, or in CEGEP.
  • A school can have one, two, or three students compete in the Senior Online Qualifiers; that is, one student in each prize stream: English, Bilingual, and French.

POEMS & RECITATIONS

  • All poems must be selected from the Poetry In Voice / Les voix de la poésie anthology, tagged for the appropriate grade level of the contest.
  • Poems must be memorized and recited exactly as they appear in the Poetry In Voice / Les voix de la poésie anthology, including any epigraphs.
  • A student must start their recitation by saying the title of the poem and the poet’s name. A student’s editorial comments before or after a poem are not allowed.
  • The titles and the order of students’ poems must be given in advance to the contest coordinators. Students may not change them once they are submitted.
  • Students recite their poems in rounds: each student recites their first poem, then each student recites their second poem, and then, in some cases, their third poem.
  • Each competitor must recite individually. Choral recitations are not accepted.
  • Each member of a school team must recite a different poem.

 

 

JUDGING & SCORING

  • At every level of the competition, students’ recitations must be assessed according to the Poetry In Voice evaluation criteria, our scoring rubric, and students must be assigned an accuracy score.
  • Accuracy judges must evaluate students’ recitations against the poems as they appear on our website.
  • Judges should not convene to discuss performances. Rankings will be based solely on evaluation sheets submitted by judges.
  • Judges may not reconsider their scores after submitting them.
  • Scoring is cumulative. The scores from all rounds should be added together to determine the winner.
  • In the event of a tie, the tied student with the highest overall performance score should win; if that also results in a tie, then look to the highest accuracy score.

 

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