National Poetry Day Competition

4th October is National Poetry Day, and we have decided to have a competition.

National Poetry Day is an annual event which aims to encourage people to discover, share, enjoy and write poetry. National Poetry Day was founded in 1994 by the charity Forward Arts Foundation, whose mission is “to celebrate excellence in poetry and increase its audience.” It is supported by the BBC, Arts Council England, the Royal Mail, literary organisations, book shops, publishers, libraries and schools.

There are no local events listed on the National Poetry Day events map, but if there are any happening then please let us know and we can include them in further articles.

You can join in on the day anywhere online using the hashtag #nationalpoetryday to link it up with what the rest of the country are doing that day.

As for our competition, send your poems to us at editor@nailed.community and we will put the best five (or more) on the website on the day.

You don’t have to have ever written poetry before to join in.  Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, or fit a pretentious remit, or be like other poems.  You can do you.

There is a theme every year, to act as an inspiration, and this year’s theme is CHANGE.  That can be whatever the word means to you: coins in your pocket, personal challenges, climate change, political turmoil, getting ready to go out, waking up in a Kafkaesque nightmare of suddenly being an insect…anything you like on that theme.

Get your entries in by 30th September, and we will contact the winners.

Rules:

• No more than 50 lines, excluding title (the Ginsbergs amongst you will have to be briefer)
• No foul language
• One entry per person
• Entrants must live in Amber Valley
• No minimum age – but please state your age if you are under 18
• Nailed writers are not permitted to enter the competition due to conflict of interest
• Closing date: midnight on 30th September 2018
• Handwritten entries cannot be accepted
• Original work only
• No borrowed forms (don’t rewrite Kipling’s If with word changes)
• Entries must be written in English

For education and event resources, inspiration, and more information on National Poetry Day events across the country visit their website.