The Suffolk Young Poets Competition is now open - please send us your best poems and win your chance to read your work alongside a top childrens’ poet at this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. The winning young poets will also get to see their work printed in a special edition of The Poetry Paper - our Festival newspaper. Here are the rules:

• Open to all young poets living in Suffolk or attending a Suffolk school in 2008-2009
• Poems may be typed or hand-written
• Each poem should begin on a separate page
• Writer’s name, age (on 31st July 2009), and home or school address must be on each page
• A maximum of three poems per entrant
• Poems cannot be returned so please keep copies

THE PRIZES

To encourage teachers to enter their pupils best poems, we’ve also increased the range of prizes:

• The winning poems will be featured in a special edition of  The Poetry Paper - The Poetry Trust’s very own newspaper (free copies given to the pupils’ schools).
• The school with the most promising entries will win a ‘Poet For A Day’ to work with pupils.
• Winning poems to be announced on National Poetry Day -
  8 October 2009 and will be promoted on local radio and television.
• The successful writers will receive their prizes and perform their winning poems alongside a top childrens’ poet at the 21st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival on Friday November 6th 2009.
• A maximum of fifteen £20 book tokens will be awarded as prizes divided between the two age groups at the judges’ discretion.
• The Suffolk Poetry Society will make the annual award of the Hardiman Scott Cup to the school with the strongest overall entry.
• The prizewinning poems and a selection of other highly commended poems wil alsol be featured on the The Poetry Trust website and will be published in the East Anglian Daily Times.