Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition 2008

For the second year running, the Children's Laureate Michael Rosen will chair the judging of this worldwide poetry competition for 7 – 11 year olds.

Michael Rosen © Laurence Cendrowicz 2007

The theme this year, which links in with National Poetry Day, is ‘Work’. Well, work is something all of us do: adults, children, animals, nature and machines. The dictionary describes work as: the physical or mental effort of doing or making something.

Here are a few examples:

Bakers get up very early to make bread – all of us can use our hands to knead dough and make bread, although many professional bakers now use machines to help them produce larger quantities of bread.

Bees work very hard to produce honey - which of course many of us enjoy spreading on our bread.

Many people now use computers or machines to help them work faster or more easily. For instance, do you wash your clothes by hand or do you have a machine at home or at the launderette which does it for you?

International Learners
If you live outside the United Kingdom and you are studying English as a second or foreign language, then you can still enter this competition in the new ‘International Learners’ category which has been created in partnership with the British Council. Your poem will be judged in the ‘International Learners’ category and book prizes will be awarded to first, second and third place entrants in 2 age groups: 7-8 year-olds and 9-11 year-olds. Please see the British Council website at www.britishcouncil.org/kids-poetry-competition-2008 for more details.

Entry forms will be available to download from the website from Thursday 11 September when the competition opens, but if you already feel inspired to start writing your poem, then please remember that it must be:

on the theme of ‘work’

no longer than 25 lines

written in English

and that you must be aged between 7 and 11 when you send in your entry, which must of course be entirely your own work.

If you are based in the United Kingdom, then the prizes are as follows:

Cash prizes of £250 for first prize, £100 for second and £50 for third will be awarded, along with books, in 2 age groups: 7-8 year-olds and 9-11 year-olds. The winners’ schools (only if UK based) will receive Children’s Poetry Bookshelf memberships. The winners will also be invited to attend a gala celebration in London on Monday 15th December where the prizes will be awarded by Michael Rosen.

The competition closes on Monday 20 October.

The other judges joining Michael Rosen on the panel are Gaby Morgan, anthologist and Editorial Director in charge of the poetry list at Macmillan Children’s Books; Rosemary Stones, Editor of Books for Keeps; Fiona Waters, Editorial Director of Troubadour and poetry anthologist; and Cliff Yates, poet and Deputy Head of Maharishi School.

The Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition is generously supported by Old Possum’s Practical Trust.