Standing on your ‘own two (metrical) feet’

 

Does your poetry stand on its own two metrical feet? Will it amaze and delight a jaded judge after he or she has read it fifteen times? More importantly is your poetry worth £5,000? Now is the time to find out. The Cardiff International Poetry Competition closing date is looming and with a first prize of £5,000 and a shot at publication you’d be crazy to let a little bit of tinsel and turkey get in your way.

 

The competition is open to entries until Friday 30 January 2009, so embrace the Christmas spirit and get writing. The hard task of judging the competition is down to   poets Ian McMillan, Kurt Heinzelman and Tiffany Atkinson. 

 

Ian McMillan, who has been a poet, broadcaster and commentator for over 20 years, has this invaluable advice for would-be entrants: ‘I often enter competitions, and I pretend that I’ve been commissioned to write a new poem for a magazine that the judge is the editor of. I try to remember that a competition-winning poem has to stand on its own two (metrical) feet; has to amaze and delight the jaded judge on first reading and then impress the jaded judge on a second and third and fourth reading in the cold light of day.’

 

Ian adds: ‘If you’ve written hundreds of poems or if you’ve never written one before, then this is the time to sit down and write a poem that will delight and impress me. Especially after I’ve read it fifteen times!’

So if you think you have what it takes to delight Ian and his co-judges and get your hands on the top prize of £5000 then send us your poems now. Just make sure your poem is no longer than 50 lines long, is unpublished, is in English and is not a translation of another author’s work and send it, along with your entry form and payment, to Academi.

To receive an entry form through the post send a stamped, self addressed envelope to: Academi, CIPC09 Entry Form, Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF10 5FQ.

 

Or visit www.academi.org/cipc/ to download the entry form in seconds. 

 

The Cardiff International Poetry Competition is administered by Academi with the financial support of Cardiff Council.