The Lawnside Historical Society has extended the deadline for middle and high school students in Camden County to submit original poetry to the "Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry Competition" in honor of Jessie Redmon Fauset, novelist, poet and author.

The new deadline is April 10.

Miss Fauset, editor of the NAACP's magazine and a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Lawnside in 1882 when her father was pastor of historic Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was an alumna of Girls High School in Philadelphia, Cornell University and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. Miss Fauset was a protégé of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and a patron to poets Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston and others.

Cash prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place winners in three categories: fifth to sixth grades, seventh and eighth grades and ninth through 12th grades. The theme is "Where My Strength Lies." Winners will read their poems at the Fifth Annual Jessie Redmon Fauset Day on April 26 at the Lawnside Public School at 2 p.m. Tickets to the program are $5 for adults and $2 for students.

Competition guidelines require that poems be typed in a clear font and that each entry have the name, address, school, grade and phone number of the poets. Public, private, home-schooled, parochial and charter school students in Camden County are eligible. To learn more about Miss Fauset and to download competition details, go to JRFDay.html. Guidelines are available on the site and can be requested from the Society, P.O. Box 608, Lawnside NJ 08045-0608 or by calling 856-546-8850. The new deadline for submissions is April 10.

Funding was provided for the competition and celebration by the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission through the New Jersey Council for the Arts re-grant program.

The Lawnside Historical Society is a recipient of a general operating support grant for the New Jersey Historical Commission and a qualified organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust.