Poetry Competition 2016

Thanks for all your entries!

The competition is now closed.

We’ve received some incredible poetry entries for this year’s competition and now we have the hard but enjoyable task of reading through all of them and selecting for our forthcoming anthology. We will be contacting everyone in October to let them know if their poem will appear in the book!

Then there’s the event on Monday 21st November for Universal Children’s Day where the 3 overall winners will receive their certificates and prizes as well as read out their poems. More details to follow soon…..

‘War and Peace in Today’s World’

This century has seen yet another turbulent roller-coaster of troubled times, in which the world we live in continues to be faced with uncertainties and conflict through wars, unrest and violent agendas.

Youth in Excellence has chosen ‘War and Peace in Today’s World’ as their theme for this year’s poetry competition and Universal Children’s Day event (20th November) opening up a whirlpool of thought for entrants to express their views, fears, hopes and solutions through written word and supported imagery.

This theme opens up a lot of political and social debate regarding countries all over the world who are at war over issues such as oil, land, religion, resources and money.

But there is also conflict on other levels too.

For example within families and relationships; gangs and communities and being at war with ourselves at times too.

So what does War mean to you?

And what are your visions of Peace?

Through conflict there are opportunities for resolution, learning and growing.

New beginnings where individuals, families, languages, communities, cultures and ages can seek to appreciate differences and embrace similarities.

Through our poetry competition, we hope to unlock personal perceptions and contribute to the journey of finding solutions and bringing peace to our homelands, our homes and our minds.

Selected entries will be included in the forthcoming published book ‘War and Peace in Today’s World‘ which will be available as an ebook and hard copy.

Top 3 finalists will be invited to attend our special award and prize giving event for Universal Children’s Day on Sunday 20th November.

1st Prize – includes £50 book voucher and copy of War & Peace in Today’s World
2nd Prize – includes £30 book voucher and copy of War & Peace in Today’s World
3rd Prize – includes £15 book voucher and copy of War & Peace in Today’s World

Entry criteria for the Poetry writing competition (download PDF here)

Open to young people up to age 25; schools (KS3, KS4 & KS5); educational provisions and colleges; community and faith groups etc.

The theme for this year’s poetry writing competition is ‘War & Peace in Today’s World’. Entrants are invited to write a poem no longer than 25 lines in which they give their views and ideas about the theme.

Poems can explore the idea of ‘War & Peace in Today’s World’ by using any form suitable i.e. rhyming couplets, free verse or sonnets.

Poems should include at least three of the devices below:

Similes
Metaphors
Personification
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Repetition
Use of the five senses
Rhyme
Rhythm

Poems should:

Be written in English
Have a title
Must be original
Written in any font 12pt black
Word document
Single line spaced, except between stanzas

Poems will be considered for the short list if they:

address the topic
hang together to create a whole
illustrate its message
respect the language convention

Shortlisted competition entries will be included in this year’s published anthology, designed by the amazingly talented Rachel Lawston whose work you can check out here http://www.lawstondesign.com/

The 2nd edition of last year’s book ‘Identity‘ is available for purchase from Amazon www.amazon.co.uk