National Poetry Day

Work

This year, National Poetry Day takes place on Thursday, 9 October 2008, with the theme of 'Work'. Please visit the official National Poetry Day website to find out what happened last year when we investigated the poetry of 'Dreams', and for more updates about this year's activities.

Here are some ideas for ways in which you can get involved with National Poetry Day through the Poetry Society.
 

First of all, if you have an event planned, why not post it up on our Poetry Landmarks.
 

Education Work

The Poetry Society has an extensive education program with projects in schools, Poetryclass INSET days, school membership packages, the Londonwide slam championship, and a number of exciting projects planned for our Centenary in 2009. To find out more about the education work that we offer, please get in touch with the Education Team.


Competitions

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award

The Poetry Society's 'Young National Poetry Competition', this prize is open to poets ages 11-17 and is supported by the Foyle Foundation. The prize giving ceremony will take place on National Poetry Day itself. All 100 winners will be invited. The top fifteen winners aged 15-17 will spend a week on an Arvon residency course with their judges in 2009.


National Poetry Competition

Now in its 31st year, the Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition is one of the leading poetry prizes. It attracts entries from Nantwich to Nairobi and offers to anyone who enters the opportunity to discover their own potential as a writer. Whether you are an established poet or a budding writer, winning often provides that essential spur to take your writing further.


Stanza Poetry Competition

This is an annual competition open exclusively to Poetry Society Members who are also Stanza Members. The theme is ‘sloth’ as a balance to the theme of National Poetry Day – ‘work’.

For further details on all our competitions, please follow this link.
 

Background to National Poetry Day

Since 1994 National Poetry Day has engaged millions of people with poetry, through a range of live events and web-based activities for people young and old throughout the country. Such a variety of poetry is being written and read these days that we decided to choose a different theme each year to highlight particular poets and styles of poetry.  One year we had Roger McGough as our poet in residence to explore the theme of 'Britain'; another year we invited some of Britain's top chefs to help contribute poems and recipes to a book on the theme of 'Food'; last year we took a poll to determine whose poem on the theme of 'the future' should be sent into space (the winner was Adrian Mitchell's 'Human Beings'). In 2006, we jumped into one of the hot topics of today's world to explore the theme of 'identity' through poetry, and last year we delved into dreams.

Previous years: