East Riding Festival of Words Poetry Competition launched for 2021

The East Riding Festival of Words has launched its Poetry Competition for 2021.

The competition will reach its climax with an event at North Bridlington Library on Saturday, 29 January, 2022, at 11am, to celebrate the winning poets, hear from the judges, and listen to the winning poems.

The theme of the competition this year is ‘My Reasons to be Cheerful’. Entries will be judged by a panel consisting of Matthew Hedley Stoppard and Wendy Pratt, and led by James Nash, local writer and poet, who shares his time between Leeds and Bridlington.

Poems are submitted anonymously, so that each is judged purely on its merits. All the winners will be invited to the event at North Bridlington Library. Entries are open now, and cost £4 per entry.

Prizes on offer for the winning entries include the £500 CollectionHQ prize. CollectionHQ are the leading collection performance improvement solution for public libraries, and the East Riding Gold Prize of £200 and the East Riding Silver Prize of £150.

In addition, there will be six Highly Commended prizes of £25 each (two for adults and two each for primary and secondary school pupils); a Prison Competition prize of a £100 voucher; and a Young Poets’ Prize : school pupils could win £75, with four prizes for primary school pupils, and four for secondary school pupils.

Councillor Mike Medini, portfolio holder for cultural and leisure assets, said: “We look forward to receiving some wonderful poetry from all age groups again this year!

‘The theme is particularly relevant at the moment – we all need reasons to  be cheerful, and this competition will, I hope, inspire people to find them!

To enter, apply and pay here.

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