General Rules and Guidelines for Participation in the Creative Writing Competition within the Inter-County Educational Project “Dor de Eminescu/Missing Our National Poet” 17/04/2026

1.Title of the creative writing competition: “Dor de Eminescu/Missing Our National Poet”

2. Context/Argument 

Eminescu has been and will remain the poet of all Romanians. Every year, students and teachers all over the country organize various cultural events in honour of the one who was called the "Morning Star of Romanian Poetry," Mihai Eminescu, so that he will never be forgotten. The educational project “Dor de Eminescu/Missing Our National Poet” and the homonymous project and creative writing competition celebrate the genius and legacy of our national poet.

3.  Project goal and main objectives

The purpose of the project is to promote Romanian cultural and literary values within school communities, particularly the work and personality of Mihai Eminescu, while encouraging creativity, expressiveness, and a genuine interest in literature and poetry.

The main objectives of the project are:

• to get to know the the main biographical data of the national poet;
• to become familiar with Mihai Eminescu’s literary work;
• to reflect on the most representative Romanian poet’s verses and artistic creations;
• to create literary texts inspired by Mihai Eminescu’s themes of nature, love, and time;
• to develop key competences for lifelong learning: communication in Romanian and English, digital competence, learning-to-learn skills, social and civic competencies, a spirit of initiative, and cultural awareness and expression.

4. Eligibility and target groups

The students aged between thirteen (13) and eighteen (18) who are enrolled in a partner school are eligible to participate in the Poetry Writing Competition organized by Liceul Teoretic “Radu Vlădescu”, on 17 April 2026.

Age groups: the participants will be divided into categories based on their level to ensure fair competition (lower secondary level: Grades 5-8; upper secondary level: Grades 9-12).

5. Main themes to be considered for the competition

The creative writing competition will take place on 17.04.2026, at Liceul Teoretic “Radu Vlădescu” Pătârlagele and in the partner schools. All the poems and texts entering the competition must be inspired by Mihai Eminescu’s poetry themes of love, nature and time.

6. Competition Timeline

The participants must be registered for the competition by their coordinating teachers, each participation being accompanied by the submission of the student registration form https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qVtD7-EWCS8qKjVZlnb9EDiVemzYtUdE/view?usp=sharing which will also be secured by the coordinating teachers at ltrvp@yahoo.com before March 31.

Each contestant creates one poem or one narrative or descriptive composition inspired by the poetry of our national poet and dedicated to Mihai Eminescu. Each creation must be the entrant’s original work which must not have been published, self-published, shared on a website or made public on social media, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition. All literary creations must include a title. Poems should contain 16 to 30 lines, excluding the title. Narrative and descriptive compositions should have 250–300 words for lower secondary level and 450–500 words for upper secondary level.

7. Competition Coordination and Evaluation

The coordinators will evaluate the original creations of the participants anonymously, based on the judging criteria below, shared with all the coordinating teachers in the partner schools at least two weeks before the competition. 

Judging Criteria for the poetry writing competition (10 points)

• Relevance to the theme (3 points)
• Creativity/Style and Originality (3 points)                                                             
• Coherence of form and structure (harmony of words, presentation) (2 points)
• Clarity of imagery and language (1 point)
• Accuracy-correct grammar and vocabulary (1 point) 

All entries will be judged anonymously so the author’s name must not appear on the creation itself. The judges’ decisions and marks will be final. 

The number of prizes awarded in the competition will not exceed 25% of the total number of participants.                                             

8. Dissemination 

The results of the main activities within the educational project “Dor de Eminescu/ Missing Our National Poet”) will be disseminated online, on the blog of the teachers of English on the Buzău Valley, https://englishteachingonthebuzauvalley.blogspot.com/  , and on the national platform www.iteach.ro . The winners of the 2026 edition of the inter-county creative writing competition will be promoted on https://englishteachingonthebuzauvalley.blogspot.com/  , the English teachers’ blog, before 20 April 2026.

9. Official Certification

Signed and stamped certificates will be submitted to the coordinators and/or evaluators, and diplomas (for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes) will be granted to the participants whose creations have obtained the following scores:

• the 1st prize will be awarded for 9.50 – 10.00 points;
• the 2nd prize will be awarded for 9.00 – 9.49 points;
• the 3rd prize will be awarded for 8.50 – 8.99 points.

The most original competition entries will be granted book prizes and the participants will receive digital diplomas signed and stamped by the coordinating school, Liceul Teoretic “Radu Vlădescu” Pătârlagele.

10. Final creative writing competition regulations

- No fees or financial support will be required from the project participants or the partner schools.

- The teachers are responsible for the safety of their students during all the project activities.

- Each teacher will inform his/her students about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and get the formal consent of the parents/tutors to use their personal data for the purposes of this project.