I need hardly say that we shall not be meeting again until we see what the post-pandemic world looks like. Then (if I’m spared, as my grandmother used to say) I’ll do my best to re-book all the guest poets we’ll have missed. NB use of future-perfect tense. Trying to maintain some standards here.
Meanwhile there is no shortage of opportunities to engage with online writing initiatives, and of course to send your work to magazines and competitions.
I have been asked by Ali Lewis to pass this on:
I was wondering if you might be able to share the details of our 2020 Poetry London competition with members of Wells Fountain Stanza?
First prize is £5,000, second prize is £2,000 and third prize is £1,000, and this year, the competition’s being judged by Ilya Kaminsky.
It’d be great to see some entries from Wells Fountain poets. The deadline is 1 May, and you can see details of how to enter here.
Some others that popped into my inbox:
Paper Swans single poem competition – max 24 lines, closing date 24 April
Rialto Nature & Place competition – max 40 lines – closes on 1 May
Live Canon single poem competition – poems of any length – deadline 13 May
Winchester Poetry Prize, max 40 lines, deadline 31 July (if you follow the link you may be able to spot me in the back row of the photo)
Cannon Sonnet or Not competition for 14-line poems closes on 31 October.
I’ll end by wishing you well, whether you are working your socks off in the service of the public or going for long contemplative walks and looking forward to yet another meal of mashed potato because potatoes are all you have in the larder and you must eat them up before they demand to be planted.
Ama
ways with words in the city of Wells 