BUXTON POETRY COMPETITION IS ‘A BREATH OF FRESH AIR’

BUXTON POETRY COMPETITION IS ‘A BREATH OF FRESH AIR’

Buxton’s third annual poetry competition will be launched on Thursday October 8, National Poetry day.  The competition’s theme in 2010 is ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’

Poets of all ages are welcome to enter – there are three categories: Open Poetry for poets 19 and over, Young People’s for budding poets between 12 and 18, or Children’s Poetry for the 11 and unders.

Competition organiser Claire Rhodes said:  ‘We are really excited about this year’s theme and we’re sure it will inspire poets of all ages to get writing.  Poems could be about a place, a person, an event, an emotion or anything this phrase brings to mind.’

The competition run in collaboration between Buxton Festival and the University of Derby has inspired over 3,000 poems since it began in 2007. Entries have come from all over the world including America, New Zealand and Europe.

The county’s schoolchildren are particularly encouraged to build on their creative writing skills, drawing inspiration from their beautiful surroundings.
And the handsome reward for the best entries will be book tokens from competition sponsors Waterstone’s.
 
Entrants to the Open Category are drawn not only by the generous cash prizes, but by the prestigious panel of judges. This year a new set of experts will pick the winners: husband and wife team Peter and Ann Sansom.  Peter and Ann are both published poets with experience in all aspects of poetry from writing and performing to editing and teaching.  Peter Sansom comments:

Ann and I look forward to working together to judge the Buxton Poetry Competition.  We have only judged together once before and it was very interesting, but luckily divorce proceedings were just about avoided!  It is a great privilege to be asked to judge the competition and we very much look forward to being surprised by the range of interpretations of the theme which I am sure we will receive. 

Buxton is also supported by the nation’s former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion alongside Lady Jasmine Cavendish who remain as the competition’s patrons. 

The deadline for entries is April 1 2010. Entry packs can be downloaded from www.derby.ac.uk/buxtonpoetrycompetition or contact Claire Rhodes on 01298 70395 or claire@buxtonfestival.co.uk for more details.