2018 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition

From romance to rhetoric and from sonnets to satire: The Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition is now open for entries.

2017 competition winner, Steve Xerri

This is the 12th year of the Competition which has grown into an internationally respected event and forms a major part of the Festival year.   In 2016 there were a total of 391 entries from all over the world and in 2017 there we received 311.

Each year around 35 poems are longlisted from the entries received and these are published in an anthology; copies are available from the Festival Office.  A shortlist of poems is then selected and from these the winners are chosen.

The Competition is generously sponsored by the School of English who donate the University of Kent Prize of £200 for the winner, £100 for second and £50 for third places, £25 for the People’s Choice and the Best-Read Poem receives a bottle of sparkling wine courtesy of the Wine Room, Tankerton.

So, send in your poems of all types, long, short, tragic, funny, whatever you are moved to write; you may find yourself crowned the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2018 at our Awards Evening on 4 October in the Gulbenkian Theatre.

The Competition deadline is Monday 18 June 2018.  The fee for entry is £5 per poem and please don’t forget to attach an entry form which can be downloaded from the Festival website www.canterburyfestival.co.uk along with the Terms and Conditions.

 

For further information contact Tina at the Festival Office 01227 452853.