Encourage your students to hone their close-reading skills on the best new contemporary poetry – and see their winning critiques published
Any teacher who sends in 10 entries will receive a free copy of The Forward Book of Poetry 2014.
“Ambiguity and uncertainty give our students’ reading skills a great workout, which is why poetry is such an exciting, energizing and rewarding way to turn reading into a creative act: it encourages students to think independently, and to grow in confidence and self-esteem.” John Field, Poor Rude Lines blog
We invite the nation’s students to offer their own reading (650/750 words) of one of these eleven Forward Young Judges poems by poets shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, or the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection.
The winning essays in each group (KS 4 and KS 5) will illuminate the poem, bringing out facets that are not be apparent on first glance. Young Judges should ask themselves: what is it about the language, attitude, voice, form and subject of the poem that catches your attention, moves and inspires me?
We seek vivid and perceptive writing showing that the student has noticed how the poem’s precision engineering works and is alive to its emotional resonance. We are looking for essays that get beyond the purely personal (“It reminds me of my dad”) .
The essays most likely to succeed will do for the chosen poem what the best critical writing about pop music, art, film and drama does: enables others to see it with freshness and clarity.
The deadline for submission is December 1, 2013. Winners and their teachers will be notified by January 30, 2014.
The competition will be judged by Jeremy Noel-Tod, editor of The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry, Julie Blake of Poetry By Heart and Susannah Herbert of the Forward Arts Foundation
Prizes
The winning pupil in each of the two KS categories will be published on the Forward Arts Foundation website. They will receive a copy of The Forward Book of Poetry 2014 plus a £50 Foyles’ voucher.
The runners-up will receive a copy of the Forward Book of Poetry 2014 plus a £25 Foyles’ voucher.
The schools/colleges attended by the winners and runners-up will receive 20 copies of Winning Words (Faber & Faber), an anthology of classic and contemporary poetry edited by William Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day.
For more information and to get involved