World-renowned Poet to judge Guernsey's International Poetry Competition

Friday 20 September 2024

Award winning poet Imtias Dharker has been asked to judge the three categories in this year's International Poetry Competition.

She is a poet, artist and film maker, who's published seven collections of poetry.

Mrs Dharker was awarded the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry back in 2014, and has been the Chancellor of Newcastle University since 2020.

The Guernsey International Poetry Competition is run as part of the Guernsey Literary Festival, and last year attracted a record number of entries last year, from as far away as Australia, Bangladesh, and Japan.

For 2025, Mrs Dharker will host a presentation and reading event for the competition winners on Friday 2 May, during the Guernsey Literary Festival, which runs from 25 April to 4 May. 

She will also be doing a reading event of her own poems and speaking in local schools.

The competition is divided into three classes: Open (which carries a first prize of £1000), Channel Islands (£250) and Young Poet (£250). There will also be cash prizes for second and third in each class. These winning poems will be part of the Poems on the Move display, and even more will be chosen to be part of the Poems on the Buses display.

The closing date for the competition, which is for poems of a maximum of 14 lines on one side of A4, is 15 January 2025. More details, rules and entry instructions are on the competition website.