Island Voices and West Tisbury poet laureate Fan Ogilvie have announced that submissions are now open for Promising Young Poets, a program designed to recognize young poets of high school age on Martha’s Vineyard. Up to five poets will be recognized with an award, to be announced in April, National Poetry Month.

Submissions of short manuscripts of three to five poems will be due on March 1, to be read by a distinguished panel of poets. The panel incudes Linda Black and Michael West of Island Voices; Fan Ogilvie, West Tisbury poet laureate; Justen Ahren of the Martha’s Vineyard Writers’ Residency; Daniel Waters, former West Tisbury poet laureate; and Fanny Howe, 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry prize winner. All panel members are published poets, and represent a wide range of styles: traditional, rhymed, unrhymed free verse, experimental and performance poetry.

The winning Promising Young Poets will have a chapbook published by Sepiessa Press, Web publication by Island Voices on sepiessa.com and a public performance event in April, to be recorded and broadcast on MVTV, posted on YouTube and linked to Facebook and sepiessa.com. In addition, DVDs of the performance will be distributed to all Island schools and libraries.

For details on the program, call Michael West at 774-563-1231 or e-mail m@mwest.com.