Wham! Bam! It's a Poetry Slam!

When Dolly Goyal, the Belmont teen services librarian, asked for entries for the 2013 Teen Poetry Contest, she never dreamed she'd surpass last year's count of 230, but don't underestimate the power of inspired young poets--this year Dolly received 350 entries (300 middle school, 50 high school).

Each and every poem was read by Dolly and her fellow judges, and although it was undoubtedly a tough task, they have narrowed down their choices and the winning poets will be honored tonight in a ceremony at the Belmont Library.

The poetry contest winners' ceremony will be followed by a poetry slam open to the entire community. In addition, Dolly says a local poet will be doing a reading and poets of all ages are invited to do readings as well.

The festivities start at 7:00 p.m. tonight in the Taube Room of the Belmont Library, located at 1110 Alameda de las Pulgas. For more information, go to www.smcl.org/content/belmont.

I'm also glad you e-mailed because I wanted to let you know that we'll be having a Poetry Slam this Thursday at 7pm. It will start out with a ceremony honoring the winners for this year's Teen Poetry contest -- we got almost 350 entries this year! (300 middle school, 50 high school) -- followed by a poetry slam open to the community. We should be having a local poet as well as other readings of all ages. We would love it if you could come! :)