Jackie Kay to judge next year’s International Poetry Competition

Wednesday 21 September 2022

An award-winning poet has agreed to judge the Guernsey International Poetry Competition next year, which is organised in conjunction with the Literary Festival.

Jackie Kay (pictured above) was Scotland’s Poet Laureate between 2016 and 2021 and has penned several prize-winning books including ‘The Adoption Papers’, ‘Red Dust Road’, and ‘Fiere”.

She is the former University of Salford Chancellor and is currently a professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

She will judge the 2023 Poetry Competition which commenced on September 15 and invites poems from writers across the world. Over 2,000 poems were submitted last year.

The closing date for entries is January 15 2023. 

The competition is divided into three classes; Open (which carries a first prize of £1000), Channel Islands (£250) and Young Poet (£250). 

Last year’s competition attracted an especially high number of entries in the Young Poets’ class for under-18s and the organisers hope that this will continue for 2023. 

There will be prizes for first, second and third in each class and these poems and another 12 will be part of the Poems on the Move display, at Guernsey Airport and other island sites as well as on Guernsey buses

Pictured: The competition is organised alongside the Guernsey Literary Festival.

Past judges of the competition have included Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Kate Clanchy, Ian MacMillan, Maura Dooley, Daljit Nagra and Gwyneth Lewis.

The competition will be sponsored by Specsavers and supported by Guernsey Arts. Co-founder Specsavers, Mary Perkins, said: “This is a fantastic event which Specsavers is proud to sponsor. It has been brilliant seeing the Literary Festival go from strength to strength and I hope everyone enjoys this year's edition”.

The filter judge is Candy Neubert, a poetry reader for the Bridport Prize. Her last two poetry collections, Channel and Island, were partly inspired by Guernsey.

Full details and entry forms are available online or on leaflets which can be found at a number of sites in the Channel Islands. Details will also be in the UK magazine Poetry Review and a number of other national and international poetry and literary magazines and websites.

Pictured (top): Jackie Kay. Credit: Mary McCartney.