Poetry on the Border

NaCOT - On The Border 2014 season 

Chepstow

The intention is to present the finest poets in engaging, powerful and stimulating combinations. The emphasis is on accessible poetry, inspiring poets and compelling readings - all of which add up to a great night out.

Tickets Link:  http://www.poetryontheborder.org/2010/deals.htm

Saturday 7th June	7.30pm	Ben Okri & Chris Meredith .......
Saturday 5th July	7.30pm	Wendy Cope & Hilary Menos
Saturday 25th October	7.30pm	Helen Dunmore & Pascale Petit
Saturday 6th December ..	7.30pm	THE CHEPSTOW CHARIVARI "An Evening of Varieties" ...................with Michael Harvey: Storyteller Philip Wells The Fire Poet Chepstow Châtelaines Choir (Musical Director Karl Daymond) Jay Ramsay & Adam Horovitz

Upcoming Poetry Deadlines

Torriano Poetry Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 30-Jan-15

Details:
Adjudicated by Martyn Crucefix. Unpublished poems of up to 40 lines. First Prize £250, Second Prize £150, Third Prize £75. Winning poets will be offered featured readings at the adjudication celebration on 12th April, 2015.
Entry Fee: £3 one poem, £5 for two, £10 for five Contact: Cheques  payable to the Torriano Support Fund. Name, address, e.mail, phone number and poem titles on separate sheet. No entry form required. Entries to Patricia Griffin, 4 Cundishall Close, Whitstable, Kent CT5 4DA. Enquiries june.english@outlook.com

Four Counties Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 30-Jan-15

Details:
Rottingdean Writers' Group announces the first competition specially designed for poets connected to London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The judge is John McCullough, academic and prize-winning author of The Frost Fairs. Three major cash prizes and discretionary honorary awards will be presented at a ceremony on 25 February 2015: £750, sponsored by Wellesley Wealth Advisory, £250, sponsored by The English Language Centre, £100, sponsored by Chalk Gallery, Lewes.
Entry Fee: £5 for one poem, £10 for two or £12 for three poems. The fee for each additional poem after that is £4. Contact: Entry forms and competition rules are available at www.rottingdeanwritersgroup.co.uk

Prole Laureate 2015 | Closing Date: 31-Jan-15

Details:
Prizes: The winner will receive £200 and publication in Prole 16, due out in April 2015. There are two runners up prizes of £50 each and possible publication in Prole 16. The winner and runners up will be showcased here on the Prole website. Judge: Helen Ivory.
Entry Fee: £3 for first entry, £2 for subsequent entries Contact: For more details and entry see website: http://www.prolebooks.co.uk/page6.html Email entries to: poetrycompetition@prolebooks.co.uk

Kent & Sussex Poetry Society Open Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 31-Jan-15

Details:
Prizes: First Prize: £1000, 2nd: £300, 3rd: £100, 4th: 4 x £50. Judge: Mario Petrucci.
Entry Fee: £5 per poem. 3 or more poems: £4 each Contact: Postal Entries: The Competition Organiser, 13 Ruscombe Close, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 0SG. Put name and address on separate sheet - not on poem. Or enter online and pay by Paypal. For more details, go to: www.kentandsussexpoetry.com

The Slipstream Poets Open Poetry Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 31-Jan-15

Details:
Open Theme. Adjudicator - Roger Elkin. Poems may be up to 60 lines in length but must not be previously published or accepted for future publication in print or online. Prizes: £275; £100; £75. There is an additional prize of £25 and the award of the Chanctonbury Cup for a winning West Sussex entrant. Winners will be notified individually & all results will be published on the Slipstream Web Site by 31st March 2015.
Entry Fee: £3.50 per poem or 4 for £12.00, 6 for £15.00 Contact: For full details and entry please see website: http://www.slipstream-poets.co.uk/

Teignmouth Poetry Festival Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 31-Jan-15

Details:
Prizes: 1st - £500 2nd - £200 3rd - £100. Judge: Penelope Shuttle. Winners: to be announced on Sunday 22nd March 2015.
Entry Fee: £4 for one poem, £3 each for additional poems Contact: See website for entry and further information:
http://www.poetryteignmouth.com/competition.html

Bath Poetry Cafe Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 31-Jan-15

Details:
Original, previously unpublished poems of up to 25 lines are invited for the current Bath Poetry Cafe Poetry Competition. Please send anonymous poems (one poem per page) plus detailed contact/cover sheet. A panel of 15 well published Bath Poetry Cafe poets will draw up the shortlist which will be announced on the Day of Good Poetry at the Bath Literature Festival in March 2015. On this day, all shortlisted poets will receive an equal prize. In the autumn, the Bath Poetry Cafe will host a special prizewinners' event in Bath when the final judge will present additional prizes to three winners selected from the shortlist and all shortlisted poets who can attend will be given an opportunity to showcase their work.
Entry Fee: £ 6, two poems, £12, 5 poems Contact: Cheques made out to Bath Poetry Cafe should be posted to the Cafe Organiser, Sue Boyle,  at Southfield, Kipling Avenue, Bath BA2 4RD, Somerset.  Entries will be acknowledged by email or s.a.e. For more details about the competition please email sueboyle2@gmail.com

The Interpreter's House Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 01-Feb-15

Details:
There are still 5 weeks left to the deadline of the inaugural Open House Poetry Competition, judged by the award-winning Liz Berry. Remember you can enter online or by post. Details are on the website competition page below. So, if you're feeling creative after all that Christmas pud...
Entry Fee: £4 for single poems, £10 for three poems Contact: http://www.theinterpretershouse.com/competition

The Corinium Museum Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 06-Feb-15

Details:
Poems of up to 40 lines inspired by an object displayed or theme interpreted at the museum. Prizes: The winner of each category will receive a season ticket to the museum valid for a year. Winning poems will be displayed in the museum and published on the museum website. Highly commended poems will also be displayed in the museum and may be published on the museum website. Judge: Hilda Sheehan. Categories: 16 years old and above, 11-15 years old, Under 11s.
Entry Fee: £0 Contact: For more information and entry see the website:
http://coriniummuseum.org/2014/11/06/corinium-poetry-competition/

2015 Camden/Lumen Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 14-Feb-15

Details:
Judge:George Szirtes. Prize: 50 free copies of a perfect bound small collection of your poems plus a reading. Poems up to 40 lines. Poetry must not be previously published. Proceeds to Homeless Cold Weather Shelters. No entry form is necessary.
Entry Fee: £2.50 for single poems, 6 poems £10 Contact: Please make out cheques to Caris Camden and send to Ruth O'Callaghan, 49 Ripley Gardens, Mortlake, London SW14 8HF

Fire River Poets Open Poetry Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 20-Feb-15

Details:
Prizes: 1st Prize £200, 2nd Prize £100, 3rd Prize £75. Prizewinners will also be invited to take part in a special Reading in Taunton. Judge: Lawrence Sail. Length: 40 lines. Prizewinners notified by beginning of May.
Entry Fee: £4 for 1; £8 for 2; £10 for 3, £3 each for additional poems. Contact: Entries: Postal entries to: FRP Poetry Competition, 127 Monks Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 7BQ Rules & Online Entries: www.fireriverpoets.org.uk

The Christopher Tower Poetry Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 27-Feb-15

Details:
Competition for 16-18 years of age. Theme: 'Cells'. Prizes: The first prize is £3,000, with £1,000 and £500 going to the second and third prize- winners. In addition to individual prizes, the students' schools and colleges also receive cash prizes of £150 and the three prizewinners are eligible for a place on the Tower Poetry Summer School.. Longlisted entrants' poems are published on the Tower Poetry website. Judges: Ian McMillan, Helen Mort and Peter McDonald. The winners will be announced on Monday 20 April 2015.
Entry Fee: £0 Contact: www.towerpoetry.org.uk/prize or email info@towerpoetry.org.uk or call 01865 286591.

The Society of Civil and Public Service Writers | Closing Date: 28-Feb-15

Details:
Prizes: 1st £50; 2nd £25. Poems should not be more than 40 lines, with each poem on a separate sheet. Entries should be typed on A4 paper. The competition is open only to SCPSW members. Those eligible include serving or retired members of the Civil Service, Armed Forces, National Health Service, Local Government, the Police Force or any Public Service.
Entry Fee: £2 per poem Contact: All entries should bear only the name of the competition being entered, a title, the author's pen name and a separate sheet quoting: the name of the competition being entered, pen name, title, real name and address. Entries returned if accompanied by SAE. For details of membership send SAE to Michael Smith, 22 Western Drive, Shepperton, TW17 8HL, or email membership@scpsw.co.uk
For more details visit the website: www.scpsw.co.uk

HAD Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 28-Feb-15

Details:
The title for the poem is 'Honouring the Ancient Dead' (a celebration of the ancestors on display up and down the country - perhaps acknowledging their continuing place within the community). However, the theme may be interpreted as loosely as the entrant wishes.
Entry Fee: £0 Contact: Postal entries should be marked 'Poetry Competition' and sent to: Box 275, 8 Shoplatch, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1HF.
Entries should be sent via email or the Contact form on the HAD website:

http://www.honour.org.uk/had-poetry-competition/

York Literature Festival / YorkMix Open Poetry Competition 2015 | Closing Date: 28-Feb-15

Details:
Prizes: £400, £100, £50 (and a prize of £40 to the best York entry, excluding the first, second or third prize winners). Highly Commended and Commended certificates will also be awarded at the discretion of the judge, multi-award-winning poet Carole Bromley, Poet in Residence at YorkMix.com. All prize-winning, Commended and Highly Commended poems will be featured on YorkMix.com website, and poets invited to read their work at the prize-giving event on Saturday, March 28, 2015, at York St John University. Poets may enter as many batches of entries as they wish. Poems may be in any form, but no longer than 40 lines.
Entry Fee: £5 for a single poem entry. Or £10 for up to five poems Contact: Entry is via the online entry form and PayPal here: http://www.yorkmix.com/things-to-do/poetry/win-400-for-your-poem-in-the-yorkmix-poetry-competition/

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Short Story Competition | Closing Date: 28-Feb-15

Details:
For original, previously unpublished short stories in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 1500 words long. This competition is open to all writers regardless of nationality, living anywhere in the world. Judge: Catherine Edmunds. Prizes: £200 (First), £75 (Second), £50 (Third), £20 x 3 (High Commendation). The winners and commended stories will receive first publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.
Entry Fee: £4 per story, £8 for 2, £10 for 3, £12 for 4. Contact: Enter online and pay securely by PayPal or print out an Entry Form for postal entries at: http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/short-stories/, Or send your stories with a cover note titled 'Sentinel Literary Quarterly Short Story Competition February 2015', together with a cheque/postal order for the applicable payment in favour of SENTINEL POETRY MOVEMENT to: Sentinel Poetry Movement, Unit 136, 113-115 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AB, United Kingdom.

Bridport Prize

“Mention the Bridport Prize and the eyes of writers everywhere light up. It's not just the money - though that's not to be sneezed at - it's a prize really worth fighting for in terms of prestige and genuine literary accomplishment” 
Fay Weldon CBE, patron of the Bridport Prize

Over £16,000 in prize money

One of the richest writing competitions in the UK, the Bridport Prize is open to all nationalities aged 16 years and over.
The poem and short story categories each have a first prize of £5,000, second prize £1,000 and third prize £500. An additional 10 supplementary prizes (for each category) of £50 each are awarded.
A new category for flash fiction with a prize of £1,000 was launched in 2010. There is a second prize of £500, 3rd prize of £250 and 3 supplementary prizes of £50.
In 2014 the Peggy Chapman-Andrews first novel award, named after the Prize’s founder, was launched. The first prize is £1,000 plus a up to a year’s mentoring from The Literary Consultancy. A runner-up prize of £500 is also offered. 
The Dorset Award is a prize specifically for Dorset writers. Thanks to the sponsorship of The Book Shop of Bridport, £100 is awarded to the highest placed Dorset writer in the Bridport Prize each year.

https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/submit-post

Regular Bristol Poetry Events

Bristol poetry Events	1st Tuesday	Poetry Unlimited   CAfe Kino, Stokes Croft, Bristol     First Tuesday of the month 11.30am     open reading and discussion usually themed.
	Every Thursday	Arts House Open Mic   The Arts House, Stokes Croft, Bristol    Every Thursday 8.30pm Entry Free
	1st Thursday	Hammer & Tongue open slam   The Hatchet, Frogmore St, Bristol  7.00pm   First Thursday of the month.  sign up to compete on the door
	1st Thursday	Portcullis Poets –  Eugenie House, Royal York Crescent, Clifton - 7.45pm for 8pm start Free
	2nd and 4th  Sunday	Acoustic Night Bristol - Halo Cafe Bar - 8.15pm donation - www.acousticnight.com
	2nd Thursday	Poetry at the Portcullis -  The Portcullis, Sion Hill, Clifton   7.30pm for 8pm Free

4th Thursday

Poetry Revue Shoe - The Square Club, Clifton 
Every 4th Thursday  8.30pm - 10pm £4

The Coleridge Lectures

The Coleridge Lectures: Poetry, the land and nature

17 February 2015, 6.00 PM

Kathleen Jamie

Reception Room, Wills Memorial Building

Romanticism looked at nature and the natural world in new ways and embraced a sense of place. Kathleen Jamie – a nature poet who has also covered Scotland’s independent spirit – asks how human beings can live the right relationship with the natural world. Her poetry and her books of essays, Sightlines and Findings, have been at the centre of the revival of nature writing in recent years. Finding nature in the tiny cracks of daily life, as well as Orkney in midwinter and 21st-century flotsam on a shoreline in the Hebrides, Jamie helps us all renegotiate our relationship with the natural world. She will read from her work, and talk about this relationship.

This lecture is part of a new annual series inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s radical lectures in Bristol in 1795. The 2015 series is run in association with Bristol Festival of Ideas, the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol and Bristol 2015. It is part of The Romantic Poets and Bristol programme, which celebrates the life of Thomas Chatterton, Hannah More, Willam Wordsworth, Coleridge and others in the city, and Bristol as the place where Romanticism was born with the first publication of the Lyrical Ballads. The programme focuses especially on nature and the emotions, place and the environment, and also looks at Bristol as a city for science, philosophy, ideas and political debate at the time of Coleridge and today. The 2015 theme is Radical Green. Future themes are: Utopias (2016); Revolution (2017) and Peace (2018).

Booking

This event is free to attend and open to all, but booking is required. Click on the booking link HERE. Please note booking opens 6 January 2015.

Events start punctually and, out of consideration to other audience members and speakers, our policy is not to admit or issue refunds to latecomers. Please allow enough time to collect your ticket/s from the relevant box office (if these haven't already been posted to you), and make sure to arrive before the advertised start time to take your seat/s. The Festival of Ideas endeavours to hold its events in venues that are accessible to all, but if you have specific access concerns it is advisable to contact the venue direct. We sometimes film and photograph Festival of Ideas events. Please let us know if you do not wish to be filmed or photographed.

Other events in the Coleridge Lectures series

23 February 2015: Anna Coote - Green and social justice

25 February 2015: George Monbiot - What a green government could really do if it tried

5 March 2015: Roger Scruton - The only true conservationist is a conservative

12 March 2015: Richard Holmes - Coleridge, the ancient mariner, Bristol and beyond

26 March 2015: Andrew Kelly - Animals in the fraternity of universal nature

2 April 2015: Melissa Harrison - Reimagining the city

renegotiate our relationship with the natural world. She will read from her work, and talk about this relationship.

This lecture is part of a new annual series inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s radical lectures in Bristol in 1795. The 2015 series is run in association with Bristol Festival of Ideas, the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol and Bristol 2015. It is part of The Romantic Poets and Bristol programme, which celebrates the life of Thomas Chatterton, Hannah More, Willam Wordsworth, Coleridge and others in the city, and Bristol as the place where Romanticism was born with the first publication of the Lyrical Ballads. The programme focuses especially on nature and the emotions, place and the environment, and also looks at Bristol as a city for science, philosophy, ideas and political debate at the time of Coleridge and today. The 2015 theme is Radical Green. Future themes are: Utopias (2016); Revolution (2017) and Peace (2018).

Booking

This event is free to attend and open to all, but booking is required. Click on the booking link HERE. Please note booking opens 6 January 2015.

Events start punctually and, out of consideration to other audience members and speakers, our policy is not to admit or issue refunds to latecomers. Please allow enough time to collect your ticket/s from the relevant box office (if these haven't already been posted to you), and make sure to arrive before the advertised start time to take your seat/s. The Festival of Ideas endeavours to hold its events in venues that are accessible to all, but if you have specific access concerns it is advisable to contact the venue direct. We sometimes film and photograph Festival of Ideas events. Please let us know if you do not wish to be filmed or photographed.

Other events in the Coleridge Lectures series

23 February 2015: Anna Coote - Green and social justice

25 February 2015: George Monbiot - What a green government could really do if it tried

5 March 2015: Roger Scruton - The only true conservationist is a conservative

12 March 2015: Richard Holmes - Coleridge, the ancient mariner, Bristol and beyond

26 March 2015: Andrew Kelly - Animals in the fraternity of universal nature

2 April 2015: Melissa Harrison - Reimagining the city

Welcome

Welcome to the Bristol Stanza Poetry Group

We meet every fortnight at Hamilton House as a support group for poets who are aiming at publication. Membership is by invitation. We are affiliated to the Poetry Society network of STANZA groups. For details of our programme contact: martin.rieser (at)gmail.com.

Upcoming events: Paul Muldoon reading in Bath

Paul Muldoon in Bath

Tuesday 27th January

• VenueThe Bookshop, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LS
• Doors open

• 7.45 for 8.00pm start
  
  Tickets:http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/paul-muldoon/