Now an established highlight of the Canterbury Festival calendar, Monday 11 March will see the launch of the 2013 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition. The Festival is on the lookout for today’s best writers from all across UK and beyond, and is encouraging them to submit a poem or series of poems to the competition and perhaps be crowned this year’s winner.
With over 150 entries last year, the Festival is encouraging budding poets to send in their poem by the deadline on 14 June 2013. Poems can be on any subject and previous entrants have written poems inspired by a variety of topics, conjuring images of the wilds of Africa, Italian rain and the blustery shoreline of Britain – evoking strong emotions and recalling experiences or creating new narratives with imaginative and compelling use of language.
Once all poems are submitted, an esteemed panel of judges will choose a long list of entries, which will then be included in a published booklet available to entrants and the general public.
The Competition Final will be held on National Poetry Day, Thursday 3 October 2013 – where the shortlisted poems will be performed and the Poet of the Year title decided. The event will take place in the Dominican Priory, Canterbury, from 8pm – and will whet the appetite for the beginning of this year’s Canterbury Festival, which takes place from Saturday 19 October to Saturday 2 November. The final will combine the poetry readings with live musical entertainment, and is one of the community literature highlights of the year.
The 2013 judging panel will consist of Nancy Gaffield, winner of the Aldeburgh Prize 2011, the ‘2012 Poet of the Year’ Graham Burchell and Luigi Marchini, Chairman of the Canterbury based SaveAs Writers’ Group.
Entry is £5 per poem and they should be posted to the Festival Office (8 Orange Street, Canterbury, Kent. CT1 2JA), along with an application form.
For guidelines and application form visit the website:
http://www.canterburyfestival.co.uk/learning-and-participation/festival-poet-of-the-year.aspx
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