Calling all poets, the first Isle of Wight open poetry competition is now open, in honour of the Centenary of the Poetry Society.  The competition is part of Island Poets, Island Places, and bearing in mind the close literary heritage of Tennyson, Keats, Swinburne, and WH Auden, what better way to to celebrate Tennyson’s bi-centenary.

• Submit poems up to 50 lines on any subject to win first prize of £100, with special prizes for poems on the West Wight and Tennyson’s bi-centenary.

Winners will be invited to a prize-giving ceremony on November 14th at Quay Arts, Newport, as part of the grand finale of the Poetry Society Centenary celebrations on the Island. Selected entries may be published within a centenary anthology.

The competition Closing Date: September 30, 2009
 Poems required:

• written in the English language
• up to 50 lines on any subject
Special prizes will be awarded in conjunction with the National Trust and with Farringford.
classes:
• 18 years and above
• 11-17

Entry fee:

• Adults £4 first entry, £2 for each further entry up to a maximum of 5 poems in total.
• Under 18s – Free

Guests of Farringford may submit one poem free of charge. 

• Judging will be by Gillian Allnutt who has published seven collections of poetry, including New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2007), with two of her collections being shortlisted for the prestigious TS Eliot prize. In 2005 she won the 4th Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award. She has held Royal Literary Fund Fellowships at Newcastle and Leeds Universities, and currently teaches English & Creative Writing. She co-edited the anthology ‘The New British Poetry’ (Paladin,1988) and was previously poetry editor of ‘City Limits’.  She lives in Co. Durham.

The competition is organized with the financial support of the West Wight Landscape Partnership and in partnership with the National Trust on the Isle of Wight, and of Farringford, originally the home of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Click for: Competition Details

Click for: Entry Form