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Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition 2009

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke
to judge International Poetry Competition

Carol Ann Duffy, the new Poet Laureate, is to chair the judging panel for a worldwide poetry competition for 7-11 year olds. National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, will also be part of the esteemed judging panel. The Competition is organised by the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf, a poetry book club for young people run by the Poetry Book Society. To link with National Poetry Day on Thursday 8 October, children will be asked to write a poem in English on the theme of ‘Heroes and Heroines’.

Now in its fourth year, the competition is open to both individuals and schools. Cash prizes of £250 for first prize, £100 for second and £50 for third will be awarded, along with books and CPB memberships, in two age groups, 7-8 year-olds and 9-11 year-olds.

Entries will be accepted from Thursday 10 September, up until the closing date of Monday 19 October. The winners will be announced at a gala celebration in London in December.

The British Council partnership, established last year, will continue to encourage entries to the ‘International Learner category’ for children based outside the UK who are learning English as a foreign or second language.

The Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition will encourage children to write poems of their own and help teachers to bring poetry alive in the classroom. A teacher’s guide to accompany the competition will be available to download from the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf website (www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk) from early September, along with further information about the competition.

Carol Ann Duffy is the UK’s first ever female Poet Laureate. She has been publishing poetry since she was a teenager, including many collections for adults, and her most recent collection, Rapture, won the T S Eliot Prize. She has also written stories, picture books and poetry for children. Her 30th book, The Hat, shortlisted for the CLPE Poetry Award in 2008, takes younger readers on a journey through the canon of poetry in English, and her New and Collected Poems for Children will be published by Faber this autumn. Carol Ann is currently Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Carol Ann Duffy is joined by a distinguished panel of people who either write poetry for children or are passionate about it: John Agard, poet and playwright, whose Young Inferno has just won the 2009 CLPE Poetry Award; Antonia Byatt, Director of Literature Strategy at Arts Council England; Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales, playwright and translator; Janetta Otter-Barry, Publisher of Janetta Otter-Barry Books, an imprint of Frances Lincoln; and Roger Stevens, poet, author, musician and founder of the Poetry Zone website.

The Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition is generously supported by Old Possum’s Practical Trust. 

Closing Date: Monday 19 October 2009 

For further details and an entry form visit:
www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk