Poets who read at National Poetry Day Live: Selima Hill, Lemn Sissay, Roger McGough, Joelle Taylor, John Hegley and Carol Ann Duffy

National Poetry Day

 

National Poetry Day 2010 will be Thursday 7 October.

Details of the theme for 2010 will follow shortly.

 

 

National Poetry Day 2009 was held on Thursday, 8th October, with the theme "Heroes and Heroines."
 

National Poetry Day Live!

On National Poetry Day 2009, the Poetry Society celebrated its centenary  in the Royal Festival Hall with readings from Carol Ann Duffy, John Hegley, Roger McGough, Selima Hill, Lemn Sissay and Joelle Taylor. There was also rare footage of poetic heroes and heroines, beach-ball haiku, a woolly extravaganza from the makers of the first giant knitted poem, and celebration of the winner of the BBC’s Nation’s Favourite Poem poll: T.S. Eliot. 


Competitions

Stanza Poetry Competition - was announced on National Poetry Day
Visit the Stanza pages to see who won 2009's competition.


Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award - was announced on National Poetry Day
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 took place on National Poetry Day 2009. All 100 winners were invited. The top fifteen winners aged 15-17 will spend a week on an Arvon residency course with their judges in 2010.

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.

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

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.

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'; then 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 in 2007 we delved into dreams.

Previous years:

  • 2009: Heroes and Heroines
  • 2008: Work
  • 2007: Dreams
  • 2006: Identity
  • 2005: The Future
  • 2004: Food
  • 2003: Britain
  • 2002: Celebration
  • 2001: Journeys
  • 2000: Fresh Voices
  • 1999: Song Lyrics