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The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017

Information
Closing date: 
31 July 2017
Entry: 
Open to everyone aged 11 - 17 on 31st July 2017 No entry fee
Prize: 
The top 15 winning poets will have their poems published in an anthology and are also invited to attend a week’s residential creative writing course with Arvon or receive a poet residency in their school

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017 is open for entries; now in its 19th year, over 6,000 11-17 year olds submitted work to the prize in 2016.

Organised by The Poetry SocietyLively and well-presented UK site supporting poetry with 4,000 members internationally and some thoughtful content. www.poetrysociety.org.uk, and supported by the Foyle Foundation, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award describes itself as 'one of the largest literary competitions in the world.'

Poems can be on any theme but must be in English.

In 2016, the competition attracted over 10,000 poems from more than 6,000 young poets across 76 countries, from as far afield as Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Kuwait and Uzbekistan.

The judges are charged with selecting the 100 best poets - 15 top winners and 85 commended poets. This year's judges are the poets Kayo Chingonyi and Sinéad Morrissey.

Chingonyi said: "It is an honour to be asked to judge the competition. I will be looking for poems that are refreshing, that take me aback, that make me stop and pay attention. Such poems will have something to say, even if that something is not clear, and confidence in saying it. I want to be surprised by these poems, led by them to new understandings of what a poem is and can do right now."

Morrissey said: "I'll be looking for fresh language and bold ideas, as well as attention to the magic and mystery of words themselves. But more than anything else I'll be looking for poems which are utterly convinced about themselves, and therefore utterly convincing."

This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Southbank Centre, London, during the London Literature Festival. The top 15 winning poets will have their poems published in an anthology in March next year. The current year's anthology, entitled Painting You The Darkness, has just been published to coincide with the launch of the 2017 competition.

It features winning poems from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2016. More than 23,000 copies will be published, making it one of the most widely circulated poetry anthologies in the world.

The top 15 winners are also invited to attend a week's residential creative writing course with Arvon or receive a poet residency in their school (age dependent).

For more information

Closing date: 
31 July 2017
Entry: 
Open to everyone aged 11 - 17 on 31st July 2017 No entry fee
Prize: 
The top 15 winning poets will have their poems published in an anthology and are also invited to attend a week’s residential creative writing course with Arvon or receive a poet residency in their school