Arts Award Voice is an online magazine created by young people, for young people interested in the arts (artsawardvoice.com). As nations across the globe mark one hundred years since the beginning of the First World War, Arts Award Voice are excited to have launched a poetry-writing competition that will encourage writers to engage with the centenary in a creative way. 
We are asking young people aged 11-22 to submit original poems on the theme ‘At War’. The competition deadline is November 11th 2014 – Remembrance Day. 
The competition is open to two age categories, 11-16 and 17-22, and the judges are looking forward to reading poems from a wide range of young people. The prize includes a National Art Pass, and feedback from the judges for the winning poems – an invaluable opportunity for any budding writers. We will also publish a selection of poems in an e-book which will have a small print run, and winners will each receive a copy.
Arts Award Voice is delighted that Joelle Taylor, Kat Francois and Caroline Bray have agreed to judge the competition. 
Joelle Taylor is a spoken word artist and poet, and Founder and Artistic Director of SLAMbassadors UK, the Poetry Society’s national youth slam championship. She worked alongside Caroline Bray (Arts Award Museums, Heritage and Libraries Associate) with Bronze Arts Award students recently on a project which saw them writing poetry inspired by First World War objects and stories from The British Postal Museum and Archive, before performing their work at the Roundhouse in Camden. 
Kat Francois is a performance poet. She is the 2005 World Slam Champion and a resident poet at Theatre Royal, Stratford East. She has also written and performed a one-woman play called Raising Lazarus, charting the journey of West Indian soldiers who came to fight for Britain during the First World War.
The potential of this poetry competition is far reaching; as Joelle Taylor notes, reading the poetry of young people it “like listening to thoughts from the future. I believe that poetry can affect positive change in the world, and even that these poems can help us erase war and find peaceful ways to end conflict. I can’t wait to read them.”
Entries should be sent to voice@artsaward.org.uk, along with name, age and email address. All questions and queries regarding this competition can also be sent to voice@artsaward.org.uk.