NEW GLOUCESTER — The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has announced that Jeremy Colson of Durham won the Youth Competition for Poetry in the 2011 Maine Literary Awards for his poem, “Irrelevant Nonsense.”

“The judges called Jeremy’s poem extraordinary,” said MWPA executive director Joshua Bodwell. “They were impressed that his seemingly surrealistic poem was in fact full of rigorous logic.”

Colson’s poem, submitted by his Merriconeag High School teacher David Sloan, beat out a field of 66 entries in the Youth Poetry category in order to win the top prize of $200. The award was sponsored by Maine Poets Society.

In all, more than 100 Maine students sent work into the Youth Competition. Seventy-three books were entered into the 2011 Maine Literary Award’s various categories, and 50 manuscripts were submitted into the Short Works Competition.