Kate Clanchy to judge local poetry competition

Saturday 10 October 2020

Renowned poet, writer and teacher, Kate Clanchy will judge the entries in next year's Guernsey International Poetry Competition, which launches this month.

The competition - also known as Poems on the Move - is organised by the Guernsey Literary Festival and welcomes submissions from all over the world.

Last year's competition, which was judged by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, attracted more than 1,200 entries, some of which came from published poets.

For the 2021 competition, organisers are putting special emphasis on getting young poets of secondary school age to take part in the Young People (11-17) class, and are sending letters out to local schools.

There are three classes in the competition; Open (18 and over) which has a £1,000 first prize, Young People (11 to 17) and a Channel Islands (18 and over) which only includes local residents. 

 Ms Clanchy has taken on the role of head judge for the competition and will choose next year's winners, whose poems will go on display across the island.

 She is an award-winning poet and short-story writer, while her novel 'Meeting the English' was shortlisted for the Costa prize. One of her best known collection of poems, 'Newborn' was described by the Financial Times as "a sparkling, tender, totally unsentimental study".

This year, Ms Clanchy was awarded the Orwell Prize for Political Writing for her book 'Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me', which Philip Pulllman called "the best book on teachers and children and writing that I've read".

"We are really pleased to be able to support the Poems on the Move competition again, and we are excited by the festival committee’s ideas to bring the competition to life as part of our schools educational programme," said Dawn Gallienne from Guernsey Post, which is sponsoring Poems on the Move.

Each individual poem must not be more than 14 lines long and all entries must be in by 15 January 2021.

For entry forms and further information, visit poemsonthemove.com.

Pictured top: Kate Clanchy.