Hurricane Sandy Inspired Poetry is Sought For Anthology, Performances

Calling all poets who have been inspired by events surrounding Hurricane Sandy.

The Long Branch Arts Council and Arts Helps is partnering with Playwrights Theatre to publish an anthology of poems inspired by the Oct. 29, 2012 superstorm and its aftermath. Some of the poems will even be performed in various locations in Long Branch in the Spring of 2014. 

To submit up to three poems for consideration via the Internet, go to the ptnj.org website or this page.  Or send it by postal mail directly to: Poetic Voices 2014, Long Branch Arts Council, 179 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ 07740. Attn: Group Poetry Submission. 

Classroom teachers, schools, and community-based organizations are also eligible. Look for instructions about group poetry submissions on the website.

The contest is open to writers of all ages. Poems accepted will be divided into non-student and student (grades K-12) categories. The organizers encourage classroom teachers, schools, and community-based organizations to submit poems written in the classroom or in workshop.

“The people who experienced Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath have been through a lot,” said Gabor Barabas, President of the Long Branch Arts Council and Executive Producer of The New Jersey Repertory Company in a statement.

“Poetry, with its ability to be at once intensely personal and universal, seems to be the perfect literary form to capture the myriad of conflicting emotions that emanate from these unimaginable tragedies," Barabas said. "We want to create a forum for poetic impulses, as a means of healing, as well as a means of keeping an emotional and spiritual record of what happened here a little over a year ago. So, we want to hear from anyone who may have a poem in them.”