Your chance to enter the Betjeman Poetry Prize on its 10th anniversary
Sir John Betjeman. Picture: PA Archive - Credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima
Write about the places you love like the iconic poet for this year’s competition.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Poetry Prize named in honour of former poet laureate and Highgate resident John Betjeman.
Youngsters from local schools have previously done well in the competition which asks children aged between 10-13 to pen a poem on the theme of ‘place’.
Betjeman, who grew up in Highgate West Hill and attended Highgate School, often wrote about the places that were important to him.
This year’s prize will be judged by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy alongside poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker.
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The top fifty entries will be printed in the Betjeman Poetry Prize 2016 anthology, and six short-listed poets will be invited with their families and teachers to a prize giving on National Poetry Day on October 6, at St Pancras Station where the winner will be announced.
The winning poet will receive £1000 - £500 of which will go to their school - plus Eurostar tickets and will be crowned St Pancras Laureate for 12 months. All six finalists are invited on a three-day poetry workshop and the teacher who sends in the most entries from their class wins a sponsored place on the MMU Teaching Creative Writing three-day course.
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On April 1, at noon on the Upper Concourse at St Pancras Station in London where a statue to the poet commemorates his successful campaign to save the Victorian gem from the bulldozers, Duffy and Dharker will be reading their poems and answering questions about creative writing.
Enter by post or online by July 31 2016. betjemanpoetryprize.co.uk
