Competitions · Humanities and writing · Milberg High School Poetry Prize
The Milberg High School Poetry Prize.
Three poems, no word limit, read by Princeton’s creative writing faculty - a panel that has included a Pulitzer winner and a former US Poet Laureate. Eleventh grade only.
Read this first
One year group, and one year only.
The eligibility here is narrower than almost anything else on this site, and it has a practical consequence.
Eleventh grade, in the US or internationally
Not grades 9 to 12 - the eleventh year specifically. International students in the equivalent year are eligible.
Which means one chance
A student has a single year in which they can enter. Missing the window means missing the competition entirely.
Read by working poets
The panel is drawn from Princeton’s creative writing faculty - poets and novelists who publish, including at various times a Pulitzer Prize winner and a former United States Poet Laureate.
And run by the Lewis Center
Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, named for Peter B. Lewis, whose $101 million gift in 2006 established a new era for the arts at the university.
At a glance
The essentials.
The prize exists to find outstanding literary work by eleventh-grade students in the United States and abroad. The submission process has one step that catches people out.
- Who can enter
- Eleventh grade students, in the United States or internationally
- How many poems
- Up to three
- Length
- No word or line limit
- How you submit
- Through the competition website - and it takes two actions
- The two-step submission
- First paste the work into the place indicated on the site, then upload it again as a PDF. Both are required
- Filename
- First name, hyphen, last name, hyphen, poems
- First prize
- $1,500
- Second prize
- $750
- Third prize
- $500
- Judges
- Members of Princeton’s creative writing faculty
The submission
You submit the same poems twice.
This is the practical detail worth knowing before the deadline evening, and it is the most common reason an entry is incomplete.
Paste, then upload
The work goes into a field on the website, and the same work is then uploaded as a PDF. Doing one and not the other leaves the submission unfinished.
The filename is specified
First name, last name, and the word poems, hyphenated. Following the convention costs nothing.
No length constraint
Three poems of any length. That is unusual - most competitions cap either words or lines - and it means the poems can be whatever length they need to be.
Three is a selection, not a submission
With no length limit and three slots, what the three say together matters. They are read as a group.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares an entry.
Three poems read by working poets, with one year of eligibility. That combination sets the priorities.
Choosing three that belong together
Not the three best in isolation - the three that show a voice. A reader who sees the same concerns handled three ways learns more than one who sees three unrelated good poems.
Reading the poets who will read you
The panel are publishing poets. Reading contemporary poetry, rather than only the poets on a syllabus, changes what a student writes.
Revising rather than producing
With no length limit and only three slots, a poem revised twenty times will do more than a poem written last week.
And entering in the right year
Eleventh grade is the only year. Building toward it from tenth grade is the only way to arrive with poems worth submitting.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for Milberg High School Poetry Prize at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for Milberg High School Poetry Prize is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past questions and writing pack
The same material our own Milberg High School Poetry Prize students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFEvery past question the competition has set
- PDFShortlisted and published essays, to calibrate the standard
- PDFStructure, referencing and word-count guide
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Lu
Master's in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a double major in psychology and philosophy at Mount Holyoke. Cross-cultural teaching experience across China and the US, with research work in child and adolescent development, cognition, and international students' identity.
Yang
Educated at American Heritage School, then English literature and philosophy at the University of British Columbia and a master's in language education at Toronto. Eleven years in North America, with a close working knowledge of the international curricula and overseas admissions.
Zhang
Master's in cognitive science at UC San Diego on full scholarship, after double honours in neurobiology and behaviour and in cognitive science at UC Davis. Ten years overseas, a perfect TOEFL speaking score, and named an outstanding education scholar at UCSD.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for Milberg High School Poetry Prize, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
The Milberg Poetry Prize, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Who can enter?
Eleventh grade students in the United States or internationally. It is open to that year group only.
How many poems can I submit?
Up to three.
Is there a length limit?
No. There is no word or line requirement on the poems.
How do I submit?
Through the competition website, in two steps: paste the work into the place indicated, then upload the same work as a PDF. Both are required.
How should the file be named?
First name, last name, and the word poems, hyphenated.
Who judges it?
Members of Princeton’s creative writing faculty - working poets and novelists.
What are the prizes?
$1,500 for first place, $750 for second and $500 for third.
Can I submit poems entered in other competitions?
Check the current rules with the organiser before submitting work that is under consideration elsewhere.
Who runs it?
The Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, named for Peter B. Lewis, a 1955 Princeton graduate and former trustee whose gift of $101 million in 2006 transformed the arts at the university.
Related
Other writing competitions.
What students enter alongside this one.
Poetry prize enquiries
Three poems, one year of eligibility.
Eleventh grade is the only year a student can enter, and three poems with no length limit is a genuine invitation to submit real work. Tell us what the student writes and an advisor will help choose and revise the three.