There are three age groups
11 & Under - prize £50
12 to 17 - prize £70
18 & Over - prize £200
All finalist poems will be printed in an anthology booklet and displayed on our website
11 & Under - prize £50
12 to 17 - prize £70
18 & Over - prize £200
All finalist poems will be printed in an anthology booklet and displayed on our website
2022 Poetry Competition
The Shepton Snowdrop Festival is inviting poets, young and old, to pen a poem that reflects the power of nature, its reawakening, and the hope it brings.
‘Hope in nature’ is the theme for the 2022 Poetry Competition. During the short days and long evenings of winter, the green tips and delicate flowers of the snowdrop emerge to give hope and a sense of renewal. ‘Theirs is a fragile but hardy celebration … in the very teeth of winter.’ Louise Wilder (American Garden Designer, 1878-1938)
The judge for the 2022 Poetry Competition, Pascale Petit, is a prolific award winning poet. Her seventh poetry collection Mama Amazonica won the inaugural Laurel Prize in 2020, the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize. IN 2018 she was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Serbian, Romanian and French.
Pascale explains what she will be looking for in the poems she will be judging:
“With climate crisis and mass extinctions, it’s easy to lose hope. But I think it’s crucial that we nurture our sense of wonder in the natural world, and focus on its awe and beauty, as well as the darkness. When I see an animal, a tree, or a river, I want to see it as I did once, through the new eyes of a baby, but it’s hard to recapture that first enchantment. Poems offer us ways back into the magical, so I’ll be looking out for poems that surprise with their words and imagery – if there’s any wonder, there will also be hope.”
The Shepton Snowdrop Festival is inviting poets, young and old, to pen a poem that reflects the power of nature, its reawakening, and the hope it brings.
‘Hope in nature’ is the theme for the 2022 Poetry Competition. During the short days and long evenings of winter, the green tips and delicate flowers of the snowdrop emerge to give hope and a sense of renewal. ‘Theirs is a fragile but hardy celebration … in the very teeth of winter.’ Louise Wilder (American Garden Designer, 1878-1938)
The judge for the 2022 Poetry Competition, Pascale Petit, is a prolific award winning poet. Her seventh poetry collection Mama Amazonica won the inaugural Laurel Prize in 2020, the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize. IN 2018 she was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Serbian, Romanian and French.
Pascale explains what she will be looking for in the poems she will be judging:
“With climate crisis and mass extinctions, it’s easy to lose hope. But I think it’s crucial that we nurture our sense of wonder in the natural world, and focus on its awe and beauty, as well as the darkness. When I see an animal, a tree, or a river, I want to see it as I did once, through the new eyes of a baby, but it’s hard to recapture that first enchantment. Poems offer us ways back into the magical, so I’ll be looking out for poems that surprise with their words and imagery – if there’s any wonder, there will also be hope.”
COMPETITION RULES 2022
Theme: ‘Hope in Nature’
Entry details
●The entry fee is £4 per poem for age '18 & Over', and free of charge for 'Under 18s'
●Over 18s can submit up to 5 poems, under 18s one poem
●Entrants can enter poems from any country in the world, but they must be written in English.
●Poems may be written in any format – haiku, sonnet, blank verse etc.
●Poems are limited to 30 lines in length, in 12 point text and saved as Word .doc or .docx files
●The poems must be your own original work and not have been published before or currently entered in any other competition
●The competition is judged anonymously, so please don’t write your name, address or any other identifier on your poem
●Deadline for entry is 09 January 2022
Registration, entry details, uploads and payments must be completed online
Rules about entry
●All entries are accepted in good faith
●Copyright remains with you but we reserve the right to reproduce the poems in print and digital form to publicise and promote the competition and the festival
●No single piece of work, or entrant can win more than one prize
●Entrants agree to indemnify the judges, organisers, and any other related parties against any litigation that may arise should the poems entered not have the necessary permission to be published
●We reserve the right to update and amend these rules at any time, but only if necessary; any changes will be posted on this website
●The judge’s decision is final.
Theme: ‘Hope in Nature’
Entry details
●The entry fee is £4 per poem for age '18 & Over', and free of charge for 'Under 18s'
●Over 18s can submit up to 5 poems, under 18s one poem
●Entrants can enter poems from any country in the world, but they must be written in English.
●Poems may be written in any format – haiku, sonnet, blank verse etc.
●Poems are limited to 30 lines in length, in 12 point text and saved as Word .doc or .docx files
●The poems must be your own original work and not have been published before or currently entered in any other competition
●The competition is judged anonymously, so please don’t write your name, address or any other identifier on your poem
●Deadline for entry is 09 January 2022
Registration, entry details, uploads and payments must be completed online
Rules about entry
●All entries are accepted in good faith
●Copyright remains with you but we reserve the right to reproduce the poems in print and digital form to publicise and promote the competition and the festival
●No single piece of work, or entrant can win more than one prize
●Entrants agree to indemnify the judges, organisers, and any other related parties against any litigation that may arise should the poems entered not have the necessary permission to be published
●We reserve the right to update and amend these rules at any time, but only if necessary; any changes will be posted on this website
●The judge’s decision is final.
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for general enquires about the poetry competition email us
for general enquires about the poetry competition email us
