Just in time for April's National Poetry Month, the Madison's Poet Laureate and the Madison Arts Commission (MAC) are pleased to announce the new program, Bus Lines, a high school poetry competition that will print selected poems on the placards right above the seats on Metro Transit busses in the 2008/2009 academic year. Students whose work is selected will also be invited to read their work at the Wisconsin Book Festival next October.

Teachers, parents, and anyone who interacts with high school students should encourage them to submit poems to Bus Lines. Students, who are enrolled in a Madison high school during the 2007/2008 school year, are invited to submit up to three (3) original, unpublished poems to Bus Lines. Poems can be submitted in any language, but must also include an English language translation. Each poem must be no longer than eight (8) lines. There is no entry fee. There will be no monetary prize awarded to students whose work is selected.

BUS LINES Applications and Guidelines are available on the MAC Website at http://www.cityofmadison.com/mac/buslines/ or by calling the Arts Program Administrator at kwolf@cityofmadison.com or (608) 261.9134. Entries accepted April 1-30, 2008.

April 30, 2008 is the last day to apply.

Bus Lines, is a collaborative project involving: Fabu, Madison's Poet Laureate; Madison Arts Commission; Metro Transit; Madison Metropolitan School District; Madison public Library; and the Wisconsin Book Festival. Our thanks to Adams Outdoor Advertising for donating the advertising space and their creative services as part of their Public Service Advertising Program.